Kindergarten

Juvenile dunnock

All of a sudden the garden's full of young birds. I knew the baby spadgers were about by the chirruping in the roses while the fat balls were disappearing from the feeders. They've been out in force today, taking advantage of the sunshine. I haven't seen the young great tits for a couple of days. Their spaces on the seed feeders have been taken by  a couple of young blue tits, their lemon yellow faces contrasting with the blackish faces of their parents in their post-breeding moult. Yesterday a family of goldfinches flew in, I think they've been crowded out by spadgers today. A lot of frantic squeaking and fluttering in the rowan tree turned out to be the arrival of the first young dunnock.

• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 2
• Dunnock 2
• Goldfinch 3
• House Sparrow 18
• Jackdaw 1
• Swift 1
• Woodpigeon 2
• Wren 1

The flock of forty-plus woodpigeons are pretty much a fixture over on the school playing field this week. There's usually a couple of dozen starlings and a handful of pigeons with them, the jackdaws, rooks and magpies come and go ad lib while the family of three carrion crows tend to turn up late in the day. Some days there's a few lesser black-backs about, usually with a herring gull or two with them. Herring gulls are becoming more frequent Summer visitors over the past couple of years.