Local patch

Magpie on one of the fat-covered pine cones

There was a thin dusting of snow during the night and it was topped up in little bursts throughout most of the morning. Early on it looked like it might be sunny but the clouds rolled in and it was pretty dreich most of the day.

The spadgers set up camp on the feeders in the back garden but the addition of the fat cones meant that everyone got the chance to get something.

• Blackbird 1
• Blue tit 2
• Coal tit 1
• Collared dove 2
• Dunnock 1
• Great tit 1
• House sparrow 21
• Magpie 2
• Robin 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 1

The school playing field was littered with snow but mostly not frozen so there were a few black-headed gulls feeding with the rooks and jackdaws. A lesser black-back lingered a while, three herring gulls chased each other round before settling over by the youth club. Much the noisiest bird on the field was a common gull feeding by the netball court with the magpies.

It had been very seriously tempting to just ignore the cat and go back to bed all day catching up with the cricket (I'm usually evicted around nine o'clock so she can get some sleep in peace, something I won't have been allowed). After a bit of bad housekeeping I had a look at the state of the pavements and decided to check out the local patch.

Magpie and buzzard, Barton Clough

For all that it was late lunchtime the bad light made it feel like dusk. Most of the small birds were making noises in deep cover, a small crowd of starlings sang and called from the treetops and blackbirds and a song thrush rummaged around every patch of leaf litter. Nearly two dozen magpies were mostly feeding on the football pitches, there were just half a dozen in the trees on the old cornfield. Three of these magpies were hanging around with the buzzard until it decided to move on into the trees behind the school.

Barton Clough 

As it started to get misty and the gloom further descended I decided to pack it in and let the rabbits have the old railway line to themselves. Just as I dropped down the steps to St Modwen Road a female bullfinch emerged from the nearby brambles and flew over to the Pyracantha bushes to roost.

• Black-headed gull 1
• Blackbird 15
• Bullfinch 1
• Buzzard 1
• Carrion crow 5
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great tit 1
• Herring gull 5
• Lesser black-back 9
• Magpie 23
• Robin 4
• Song thrush 1
• Woodpigeon 1
• Wren 1 

All the while there'd been a slow drift of herring gulls and lesser black-backs overhead going to roost. Twelve more lesser black-backs and a herring gull passed over while I was waiting for the bus to the Trafford Centre.