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Long-tailed tit

A combination of train strikes, downpours, a lunchtime panic which turned out to be a false alarm, and just plain tiredness conspired to have me shelve all today's plans. The weather couldn't make up its mind whether it was going to be sunny or not but it was distinctly cooler than yesterday and when I was making my way home for the second half of my lunch it poured down with big blobs of sleet in the mix and that sort of finished it for me.

The birds in the back garden were taking advantage of my having refilled the feeders yesterday afternoon and they made quick work of all the fat balls in the feeder under the rowan tree. There were more in the feeder by the washhouse and the sunflower feeders were full so there was still plenty to go at. There were a few nice surprises: the male chaffinch has found the sunflower seeds and looks like lingering awhile, the first chiffchaff of the year bounced into the sycamores on the railway embankment, and a heron lolloped slowly at tree height along the railway line heading off into Urmston. It might have been taking advantage of the lack of trains to navigate its way from the docks to the river at Flixton.

• Black-headed gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 4
• Blue tit 1
• Carrion crow 2
• Chaffinch 1
• Chiffchaff 1
• Collared dove 1
• Dunnock 2
• Great tit 2
• Grey heron 1
• Herring gull 1 overhead
• House sparrow 16
• Jackdaw 2
• Long-tailed tit 2
• Magpie 1
• Mistle thrush 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 3 
• Woodpigeon 6

Today's the first day this year without any gulls on the school playing field. A handful of black-headed gulls flew overhead when I was out but none of them landed on the school.

• Jackdaw 23
• Magpie 17
• Starling 2
• Woodpigeon 10