Any food?

Yesterday was cold, wet and rather grim - I stayed at home and did the Big Garden Birdwatch. There were remarkably few birds around, although it was good to see both male and female blackcaps in the allotted hour, and a flock of twenty goldfinches dropped in at the last moment. I spent some of the day tidying, otherwise being fairly unproductive. 

The high spot was an amazing evening meal cooked by Sarah, which included a butternut squash, sausage and feta strudel, cauliflower and chickpea salad with tahini dressing and a spinach and pomegranate salad followed by lemon posset, home-made shortbread and a roasted peach. It made it feel like a proper weekend  - the days do seem to be very 'samey' at the moment.

Sunday was much brighter with a touch of morning frost. I repeated the BGB to see if the poor weather had been the cause of yesterday's poor performance, but only managed a marginally higher count of fifteen species, and far fewer goldfinches. Our small colony of house sparrows, which has been with us for much of the winter, seems to have gone AWOL, which is a shame as I've just bought a nest box for them! 

I then went out for a good leg stretch through Thorpe Wood, where grey squirrels were still finding the the last few acorns of the year, to Ferry Meadows, where I had to pick my route carefully to avoid the flooding. The woodland birds were beginning to sing, particularly blue and great tits, but the robins were the boldest and most obvious birds today - hoping for snacks I think!

Big Garden Birdwatch Results

Blackbird 2/4
Blackcap 2/1
Blue Tit 2/3
Carrion Crow 1/2
Chaffinch 4/3
Collared Dove 0/1
Dunnock 2/3
Feral Pigeons 11/20
Goldfinch 20/3
Great Tit 1/1
Greenfich 3/0
Jackdaw 0/2
Magpie 1/2
Robin 2/3
Starling 6/3
Wood Pigeon 4/5