"Miss Perspicacia Tick" wrote in message
...
Martin Sykes wrote:
We've just had our first ever blackcap in the garden, feeding on
the
fat balls. My book says they're usually not seen until April and
even
then usually in the south so it must be pretty unusual up here in
Cheshire.


We had one here (South Bucks) on Big Birdwatch weekend (29th Jan).
What I'd
really love to see is a house sparrow - they've been absent from my
garden
for nearly eight years now. We do have plenty of thrushes (both
species) and
they're on the endangered list - and all three species of woodpecker
are
also frequent visitors (ditto). Being as we are in the Chilterns, we
also
get the occasional red kite flying overhead. All in all, that
weekend, I
must have counted at least 16 species, including four species of tit
(blue,
great, long-tailed and coal), three species of woodpecker, three
species of
finch (green, chaff and gold), warbler (blackcap) three species of
dove/pigeon (collared, wood and rock), robin, wren, dunnock,
fieldfare
(though that was in the field over the road) jay, jackdaw, magpie,
nuthatch
and a heron sweeping the pond for early frogs. OK, that's 23. Oh and
a pied
wagtail (that's 24). We used to get grey wagtails here in the
winter, but
I've not seen any for many a year. My grandfather (in Little
Waltham) has
them most years (but then he has 2 acres of garden and it backs open
country).

We have a group of about 12 which batten daily on our hospitality, for
which we are thankful.

Franz