Pittswood Birds

I walked home from work today in rain/sleet, which had been falling all morning, and after getting home and having something to eat, it was still utterly miserable out, so I stayed in! Yes, I stayed indoors, despite it being the last day of the month, I dont think there was much going on out there in those conditions.

I pinned my hopes on maybe seeing a Brambling drop in at my garden feeders, or something different flying over the house, but neither happened, in fact the only birds seen flyover were JACKDAWS. I did have quite a few garden visitors though, with 19 species turning out in the 2 and a half hours I spent at the window.

The highlights of the garden watch were the GOLDCREST and the SONGTHRUSH, the latter a very scarce bird in my garden now. The down side of the watch ( apart from two attacks from the Sprawk) was the absence of a House Sparrow, and it is now confirmed that this month is the first in 121 months of recording in the garden, that a House Sparrow has not been seen  :-(

Here's what turned up, and the peak number seen :-

GREENFICH...................................................15
GOLDFINCH................................................. 4
CHAFFINCH..................................................6
GREAT TIT......................................................4
BLUE TIT........................................................13
DUNNOCK....................................................1
ROBIN............................................................2
STARLING......................................................2
COLLARED DOVE........................................6
BLACKBIRD..................................................3
WOODPIGEON.............................................2
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.............3
NUTHATCH...................................................2
MAGPIE.........................................................1
COAL TIT.......................................................1
WREN............................................................1
GOLDCREST..................................................1
SONGTHRUSH..............................................1
SPARROWHAWK..........................................1

The total species to visit the garden this January is 22, two below the record set in both January 2009 and 2010, the mean number of species to visit over the eleven Januarys' is believe it or not 22 :-)

The patch stats for the end of this month, are as follows:-
This January I recorded 62 species, the joint fourth best total with 2008, this is 6 below the record Januarys' of 2009 and 2011, the 11 year mean for January is 60.5 species, so i just scraped past that mark! Its interesting to see the combined January list for the eleven years is now 82, I added Barnacle Goose and the good old COOT to that list this year, unbelievable that this month I had my first Coot for any January, with 3 turning up, which is a peak count for my patch!!   :-)