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Male bullfinch

A milder, wetter day led to the birds being a bit more chilled at the feeders. The spadgers didn't drop anchor in the garden so it was harder to be sure how many visited in total (there's only a few of the males who are easily individually identifiable). A male bullfinch hung around for an hour eating the buds off the rambling rose stems and saving me a bit of pruning next month. The long-tailed tits popped in again, accompanied by a goldcrest that confined itself to gleaning from the ivy in the sycamores.

• Black-headed Gull 2
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 2
• Bullfinch 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Goldcrest 1
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 12
• Long-tailed Tit 5
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 6
• Woodpigeon 1

Male bullfich

Over on the school playing field the usual black-headed gulls were joined by a few lesser black-backs and a small crowd of herring gulls including five first-Winters, one showing its first few grey feathers on its scapulars.