Local patch

Robin, Lostock Park

I put the new feeder up and loaded it with fresh food yesterday. It took the sparrows ten minutes to find it (no great effort, they were all sat on the feeder by the rowan tree watching me put it up). The titmice still aren't sure about it but it gives them a chance to get at the fat feeders while the spadgers are otherwise occupied.

Three common gulls joined the three dozen black-headed gulls on the school playing field. You can tell it's not a school day: the lesser black-backs flew over without stopping.

Lostock Park

It was a bright, crisp November day so I decided to have a nosy round my local patch to see what was about. Needless to say, the clouds rolled in the moment I left the house.

Magpie, Barton Clough

The path by the park was quiet: a few magpies, a couple of blackbirds and a robin. It was only when the magpies started dropping hints that I realised I'd left a bag of food for them back home.

Barton Clough, with a sea of golden rod seedheads

Things picked up when I started looking round the old cornfield. There were a few more magpies kicking round and I thought that would be the lot until a couple of greenfinches flew into one of the elderberry bushes. They were joined by a couple of goldfinches and they spent a few minutes twittering away as the sun came back out.

Goldfinch, Barton Clough

A loud, insistent noise caught my ear. At first I thought it was one of the dog walkers trying to get their dog's attention but as it got closer I realised it was coming from overhead. Very high overhead a black-headed gull was mobbing a bird of prey. It took a while for the pair to get close enough for me to confirm it was a buzzard (not one of the usual birds, it was a lot darker), I lost it when it flew into the low sun.

Barton Clough

Down at the Parkway end a gang of more than a dozen magpies were bouncing round in the trees making a racket. They were so distracting I nearly missed the flock of goldfinches feeding in the treetops immediately above me.

Lostock Park

I wandered back into the park and took the path through the trees at the back. It was quiet until I got to the back corner where three robins were having a singing contest.

A mixed flock of blue tits, long-tailed tits and goldfinches were feeding in the tops of the Lombardy poplars by the skateboarding pitch.

Red oak, Lostock Park

Not a bad hour and a half's birdwatching, it was busier than it has been lately though we seem to be a bit thin on thrushes and woodpigeons for this time of year.

• Black-headed Gull 3 overhead
• Blackbird 6
• Blue Tit 6
• Buzzard 1
• Carrion Crow 2
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 9 overhead
• Goldfinch 27
• Great Tit 1
• Greenfinch 3
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 7 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 17
• Magpie 24
• Robin 4
• Woodpigeon 1
• Wren 1