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Collared dove

It had been an unexpectedly busy morning and by lunchtime I was too jiggered to go out for a walk. It was a busy day out in the garden: a couple of dozen spadgers set up camp by the feeders just after dawn, they were muscled out for an hour or so just after lunchtime by a crowd of starlings, the first big flock of Winter. There was a bit of a to-do as a sparrowhawk passed overhead, badgered all the way by a carrion crow which only succeeded in keeping it in its air space twice as long as than the hawk had intended.

• Black-headed Gull 2 overhead
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1 overhead
• Coal tit 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 3
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 24
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 2
• Sparrowhawk 1 overhead
• Starling 41
• Woodpigeon 1

The black-headed gulls were back on the school playing field, giving the earthworm population a bit of a hammer.

• Black-headed Gull 42
• Common Gull 3
• Herring Gull 4
• Jackdaw 4
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
• Rook 8

I noticed I only had space for a week's photos on my camera card so I popped into Manchester to buy another. On the way home I stopped by All Saints Park to have a quick look to see if the Blyth's reed warbler that was reported yesterday was still about. Unsurprisingly not, there's not that much in the way of cover here. I wonder if it'll be turning up in Platt Fields. (If it's staying local at all it'll be more likely to join the dippers in the disreputable stretch of the Medlock by Palmerston Street.)