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Spadgers making a start on the suet blocks

Sundays are traditionally dismal so I didn't mind that so much but the torrential rain was a mither. After venturing out on an errand I didn't much feel like walking abroad.

I'm going to have to get more supplies in for the birds after the sparrows demolished the suet blocks over a couple of days. They had help from the titmice and a goldcrest, and at least one passing starling. A pillar of suet and mealworms was quickly devoured by magpies and squirrels. 

There is a mixed tit flock that visits my garden but I don't often get to see them all at the same time. There are days, like today, when the blue tits drop anchor and don't stray far from the feeders for very long. The blue tit that had attached itself to the flock of spadgers over Autumn has peeled off and joined the tit flock. The great tits come in as a pair, it's not often both the coal tits are in at the same time and the long-tailed tits usually scamper out of the sycamores in ones or twos. Today's the first time I could count eight of them bustling their way through the spadgers to get the last of the suet. I think there's just the one goldcrest but they're such fidgets I may be missing more. And don't think I don't do long, hard looks for signs of one being a firecrest. 

• Black-headed gull 1
• Blackbird 1
• Blue tit 3
• Carrion crow 1
• Coal tit 2
• Collared dove 1
• Dunnock 2
• Goldcrest 1
• Great tit 2
• Herring gull 1
• House sparrow 19
• Long-tailed tit 8
• Magpie 2
• Robin 1
• Rook 2
• Starling 1

Late on, a dozen black-headed gulls flew over, heading for the Salford Quays roost while a handful of herring gulls headed, probably, for Woolston Eyes. More surprisingly, two dozen lapwings flew East (whence to where?) overhead at sunset, a new garden tick.

There are lots of surprises along the way in this birdwatching lark. One I absolutely hadn't expected was to find myself wishing I had a mangle. I have a couple of heavy, fleece-lined shirts that are great on cold, windy days. The only drawback to them is that they're drip-dry. It takes the best part of a week, even when I hang them on a radiator. Of course, if Santa did bring me a mangle I don't have the first idea where to put it, there's no room in the bathroom or kitchen for one. I'd have to build an extension to the washhouse. They don't warn you about stuff like this in the bird books.