Local patch

Barton Clough

This one day it's early March, the next it's late May and then it's early March again weather is getting me down. It being a bank holiday today of course it was cold, grey and pouring down, it's traditional. Having kitted myself out for early March the sun came out as I was counting greenfinches and it became late May for three-quarters of an hour before clouding over again.

The rain started to ease mid-afternoon so I had a wander round the local patch, hoping for appearances by blackcaps and whitethroats. The good news is that two blackcaps were singing, one in the traditional site in the United Utilities compound, the other singing from a warehouse car park. No whitethroats yet though it's still early days for them. Four chiffchaffs, two of them singing males, may translate into two pairs, we'll see how that goes.

One of the male blackbirds was new to me, a partially leucistic bird with white thighs and a white patch behind the eye.

The usual pair of lesser black-backs were on the roof of the usual industrial unit again. I wonder if they'll breed there this year. I suspect not, there are larger, flatter roofs across by the canal and I don't think they've all been claimed yet. I know this is a colonially nesting species but I haven't knowingly seen more than one pair per roof locally.

• Blackbird 11, 6 singing 
• Blackcap 2 singing 
• Blue tit 1 singing 
• Carrion crow 1
• Chiffchaff 4, 2 singing
• Dunnock 4, 1 singing 
• Feral pigeon 15 overhead
• Goldfinch 10, 3 singing 
• Great tit 4, 3 singing
• Greenfinch 8, 2 singing 
• House sparrow 1
• Lesser black-back 3, 1 overhead
• Magpie 11
• Mistle thrush 1
• Robin 6, 5 singing
• Song thrush 1 singing
• Woodpigeon 15, 5 singing
• Wren 6, 5 singing