Windy day

Male starling (blue bill)

I get far more nervous than the cat when there's a howling wind outside After a fitful and broken few hours' sleep with cotton wool in my ears to try and dampen the sound of the hooley outside I did a quick inspection as I let the cat out to play. The sum total of wreckage was one of the wheelie bins moving six feet down the side path. I knew none of the trees had fallen over because the trains were running. All the leaves are off the sycamores on the embankment, revealing on opening the bedroom curtains the eight woodpigeons and two carrion crows that had just been suspicious shapes earlier in the week.

The wind abated to a low moan mid-morning and the spadgers rolled up to spend the day on the feeders, At one point they were joined by twenty-eight starlings. I refilled all the feeders at lunchtime confident in the knowledge I'll probably need to do it again tomorrow morning.

Female starling (yellow bill)

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 2
• Coal Tit 2
• Collared Dove 1
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 23
• Jackdaw 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 28
• Woodpigeon 8

In case you were wondering how the weight of a grey squirrel could snap a metal pole.
This beggar's stolen the last of the strawberries.

Strangely, the strong winds don't seem to have blown in many more gulls than usual on the school playing field:

• Black-headed Gull 34
• Common Gull 1
• Herring Gull 1 1st-winter
• Jackdaw 3
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
• Magpie 1
• Rook 5
• Woodpigeon 4