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Goldfinch

One of those days that start extremely wet and windy and settle down to an unpredictable mixture of sun, cloud and heavy rain, with the wind constantly providing a cold edge. Consequently it was mid-morning before the birds came into the garden in any numbers. I refilled all the feeders just after lunch, including the bird table I moved under the Mahonia, this is favoured by the collared doves and the titmice use it when the spadgers come in mob-handed. It's getting quite hard to catch the titmice at the moment, they're doing short hit-and-run visits and are obviously busy elsewhere. 

• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 3
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 14
• Jackdaw 4
• Magpie 2
• Starling 4
• Woodpigeon 2

A gull-less day on the school playing fields prompts me to wonder where all these woodpigeons have come from. They're nowhere round here all Winter. There's no interaction between the woodpigeons and black-headed gulls on this field so I shouldn't think they've stayed away because they've been crowded out (besides which woodpigeons can manage to hold their own with flocks of crows or rooks). Compared to the fields along the Mersey Valley or on the mosses I would guess this would be suboptimal for feeding, something to resort to in hungry April, but they stay all Summer. Then they'll disappear again in Autumn. A reminder that "resident" birds shift about a lot.

• Feral Pigeon 3
• Jackdaw 3
• Rook 1
• Starling 10
• Woodpigeon 41