Local patch

Mistle thrush, Lostock Park

I waited until teatime for a walk around the local patch in the hopes of missing most of the visitors to the park. By the time I arrived at the park most were on their way home  and by the time I was leaving there were just three of us: me, the bloke walking his dog a field away and the jogger who barged me off the path.

Eighteen blackbirds about, which got me thinking. I've been assuming that the couple of dozen or so blackbirds I'd be seeing on a Winter visit would be mostly migrants from the continent come over with the redwings and fieldfares but it could be that a good number of them are residents after all. Seven singing robins, seven singing wrens and three singing greenfinches bode well. Just the one singing chiffchaff again, the one over by the flyover, and that was spending most of its time making its contact call.

Besides the inevitable pigeons and woodpigeons the only overflying birds were lesser black-backs and a couple of herring gulls. It seems strange to not be seeing any black-headed gulls.

Magpie, Lostock Park

Closer to home, I noticed a second crow's nest on the corner of the school by what used to be the library. The magpies over there will be pleased.

Back home the inevitable happened: the first ring-necked parakeet made a fleeting visit to my garden.