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.