Saturday January 14

A non-birding day, but I still managed to see a Black-headed Gull from the car-park at Morrisons, count 12 Magpies on the way to the paper-shop (more than the record total at Morton Bagot), and a Nuthatch from the bedroom window.

Overnight I heard a Fox call, reminding me that mammals tend to get neglected on this blog. The recent visit to Isley Alders produced evidence of a mammal which is presumably quite common, but never seen. I refer to the mole hills which are prevalent in the woodland edge there.

I also, finally managed to photograph a Long-tailed Tit on our feeder.

Long-tailed Tit

and got a better shot of a Great Tit for good measure.

Great Tit

The day is expected to descend into farce now, as we are off to see La La Land without having managed to buy tickets beforehand, and West Brom are playing Spurs away, I am expecting a calamitous defeat.

Later: Tottenham 4 West Brom 0. At least I didn't watch it, and we got in to see La La Land.

Friday January 13

We woke up to snow, but not much. Cold snaps are not what they once were. The Blackbirds in the garden seemed grateful for the extra apples I chucked out.

Blackbirds

A cold northerly wind after the snow turned to sleet and then stopped altogether. A couple of short walks produced the only year tick in the form of a Sparrowhawk. Most of the day was spent indoors, so the garden and its surrounds had to be relied upon to keep me interested.

Collared Dove

Starling

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Thursday January 12

After three days of leaving for work before dawn and returning after dusk I was keen to get out this morning. The early morning was cloudy, but rain began from late morning.

The trip to the paper shop produced very little, but I did finally get a chance to photograph a Goldcrest.

Goldcrest

I love Goldcrests, but they are so tiny and fast that they are a nightmare to capture on film.

After breakfast I set off on foot for Ipsley Alders, a Worcestershire Trust reserve just 800 yards from the house which, I'm ashamed to say, I haven't visited for about four years. On the walk along Alders Drive I heard and briefly saw a Treecreeper.

When I got to the reserve the rain was falling steadily, so I settled for some habitat photos.

and a token bird shot.

Chaffinch

I didn't see many birds; a couple of Jays, a few Goldfinches, and some Rooks for example. The place seemed asleep, but I am sure the wildlife will come into its own as the year develops.

Back home we were eating lunch when a Jay appeared in the Silver Maple beyond the garden. It looked to be on a mission, so I grabbed the camera. Sure enough it flew into our apple tree and presently arrived on the lawn where it dug up an acorn.

Jay

Presumably it had cached the acorn earlier in the autumn and had remembered where it was buried. It flew off immediately.

Sunday January 8

Despite not birding here today, I managed to hear a Pied Wagtail through the fog as I returned from the paper shop.

Also, lunchtime was enlivened by the sight of two Great Tits bathing in the recently relocated bird bath. I have put it further away from the kitchen window, which obviously makes the bathers feel safer. The disadvantage for me is that it is now rather hard to see through the masking branches of the shrubbery.

Great Tit having a bath

Saturday January 7

Another cloudy day with hardly a breath of wind.

The nearest I came to birding was my visit to the paper-shop, remembering to take my camera this time. I spent several minutes observing the birds taking cotoneaster berries close to the shop, but was eventually forced to conclude that the best of the berry-eaters were several Redwings.

Redwing

However, the good thing about the first ten days of the year is that you can add year-ticks accidentally. So this morning I noticed a Jay as I drove to Morrisons, and later clocked a Mallard from the kitchen window as it flew past. Easy peasy.

Less satisfactory were my attempts to photograph various tits and a Goldcrest in the back garden. It didn't help that for much of the time I was cooking the dinner for Lyn and my parents. The results were all disappointingly fuzzy.

Friday January 6

A grey old day. My journey to the paper-shop produced many of the usual species including a male Bullfinch, and a singing Coal Tit which was to be my only year-tick today. The most interesting thing seen was a cotoneaster which still had berries and a few Redwings. At the turn of the year the first Waxwings reached Worcestershire (though none have been reported in Redditch yet), so this bush could be the focus of my next few visits.

After a time back at the ranch I made a second late morning dash to the shop, this time remembering my camera. Sadly there was now rain in the breeze and the light was deteriorating fast.

At least I got a photo of a Carrion Crow, albeit an abysmal one.

Carrion Crow

While back in the garden a Woodpigeon obliged.

Woodpigeon

Thursday January 5

At last, I was able to throw back the curtains and start birding on a patch in 2017 from early morning onwards.

Having said that, I plan to ease myself into it this year rather than go hell for leather from the word go. So I spent most of the morning in the big hide (house). My plan was to photograph the three species I heard on Monday evening. Eventually I did so.

Robin

Blackbird - female

Blackbird - immature male

Blackbird - adult male

Dunnock

To improve my chances on a frosty morning I chucked out some extra bird seed, and several apples saved in our garage after they had been plucked from the apple tree in October. All proved very popular.

The first new tick of the day was House Sparrow, heard calling from the landing, and then photographed in the back garden.

House Sparrow - male

House Sparrow - female

The first bird actually seen was a Magpie.

Magpie

 Next came a Carrion Crow. This created a rod for my own back as I spent all morning trying to photograph the corvids which laboured overhead only to find that almost all were Rooks, and I failed to get a shot of the only two definite Carrion Crows.

After a Woodpigeon was seen from the house, I headed for the paper shop. The ten minute walk added Great Tit, Collared Dove, Starling, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, and Goldfinch.

Back in the garden I saw Jackdaw, Wren, Chaffinch, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Nuthatch, Herring Gull, and the aforementioned Rook.

At 11.30 I decided to actually go birding. However, this entailed only a stroll to the "other" paper shop, in Winyates Green. Although much of this journey was along suburban streets past tiny front gardens, there is one short stretch of woodland which has in the past produced a singing Wood Warbler and a Hawfinch. Today, it was here that I found a small party of a species which is significantly tougher on my other patch, Morton Bagot. Many of the trees are Alders, and any birdwatcher will know that they produce seeds which are irresistible to Siskins. About a dozen were present.

Both male and female Siskin

Female Siskin

They were rather tricky to photograph as they remained high above me, constantly twittering. Also in the wood I added Goldcrest, Redwing, Bullfinch and Song Thrush to leave me with a modest tally of 25 species for the day.

I also saw two non-avian species. A pair of Grey Squirrels which chased each other around a tree in the wood, and a Daddy Long-legs Spider which emerged from a pokey hole behind the bath to do a brisk stride around the bathroom floor.

I didn't have the heart to put it out.