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Goldcrest

The heavy snow of the morning was succeeded by a dry, sunny afternoon and by the end of the day half the snow had disappeared. The spadgers set up camp all day though even they had to retreat when forty-two starlings came in and devastated the day balls. Once they'd gone I refilled the feeders and went back inside to see what else turned up (mind you, the blue tits and robins didn't even bother waiting until I'd finished filling the sunflower feeders).

A more usual photo of a goldcrest

The pair of coal tits came in and posed winsomely in the rowan tree, only splitting up and moving off as my camera got them into focus. A pair of goldcrests also gave me plenty of opportunity to get photos of where they had been as they flitted round the base of one of the feeders where the starlings had given a pine cone a hard pecking.

Collared dove

The usual pairs of collared dove and great tit were latecomers to the party today, neither being seen before lunchtime. The long-tailed tits didn't turn up until sundown when they came in, spent a good five minutes topping up from the fat feeders then bounced off to roost.

The school playing field was quiet and frozen, just a handful of black-headed gulls and a common gull loafed on the roof of one of the school buildings. There were plenty more gulls on the field by the station which is a wee bit on the damp side.

• Black-headed Gull 2 overhead
• Blackbird 4
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1 2 overhead
• Coal Tit 2
• Collared Dove 3
• Common Gull 1 2 overhead
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 2
• Goldcrest 2
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 2
• Herring Gull 1 2 overhead
• House Sparrow 26
• Jackdaw 6
• Magpie 3
• Robin 2
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 44
• Woodpigeon 2