Windy day 1

Spadgers again

I'm not fond of windy weather, it makes me more nervous than the cat. I don't know why; when I nipped to the shop this afternoon the wind that had been getting on my nerves wasn't any worse than the one I was happily walking into the other day on the Wirral. We're promised something nastier on Friday.

The morning was quiet enough, weak sun and hardly a whiff of wind. Last night's wind had rattled the last of yesterday's mealworms and seeds out of the feeders and onto the floor, which kept the woodpigeons, blackbirds and robin happy. As I went out to do the refills a crowd of starlings lurked in the top of the sycamores on the railway embankment waiting for me to finish. They're still wary of me, which gave a couple of spadgers the chance at first dibs. I need to get more sunflower seeds, the goldfinches are making me feel guilty. It was late morning before the spadgers arrived in numbers and they tended to keep undercover as the wind started to pick up.

The female sparrowhawk made her second appearance of the week, swooping in at lunchtime and going away empty handed. The sparrows, safely in the deep cover of the rambling rose and next door's ivy, spent the next ten minutes noisily doing roll calls until all were established as being present and correct.

The jackdaws and crows seemed to know when the big wind was going to kick in. They flew up into the trees along the railway line and cawed for half an hour, skedaddling just before the weather got nasty.

The titmice kept a low profile until mid-afternoon when they came in as a mixed flock with the goldcrest in tow. The titmice pretty much ignored the mealworms, preferring instead to get the last of the sunflower hearts, the goldcrest confined itself to gleaning from the buds on the fruit bushes, it's been a mild Winter so I'd imagine there's plenty to go at. The sparrows and starlings made themselves scarce in the high winds but the titmice carried on until it started pouring down.

Oddly enough neither of the squirrels showed themselves today. I expect they've been teasing the cats under the station platform again.

• Black-headed Gull 2 overhead
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 2
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 2
• Herring Gull 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 18
• Jackdaw 4
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Sparrowhawk 1
• Starling 27
• Woodpigeon 5

The gulls on the school playing field were a bit understrength and they all disappeared mid-afternoon. It'll be interesting to see what blows in tomorrow.

• Black-headed Gull 29
• Common Gull 5
• Herring Gull 1
• Jackdaw 9
• Magpie 1
• Rook 3
• Woodpigeon 5