Earlier I predicted that the local bird population would, as they have
doine for years, disappear for the weekend as today/tomorrow are the
RSPB's birdwatch days.

I was wrong this year, for once!

Our first nuthatch appeared, early for round here, and was as nutty as
his or her predecessors have been - though not in any way anti the
idea of sharing the bird table with others. A robin appeared on the
bird table just before a flock of starlings swooped in. Poor little
robin was hemmed in on all sides until he managed to escape and joined
the tits hanging from the peanut feeder - I've never seen a robin
hanging from a mesh feeder before.

The main event was a bird appearing on a hanging feeder that turned
out to be a male green woodpecker - first time for one of those here
though we get great spotted ones regularly.

The only laugh was that after the hour of birdwatching, accompanied by
a decent bottle of wine as I couldn't go out and dig as that would
disturb the birds (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), I tried
to submit the results and found that all links to the RSPB's birdwatch
site returned "not working " errors!

So this year it's birds 1, RSPB 0!

Otherwise, significant changes this year are the total absence of
sparrows, collared doves and magpies. FWIW next door is a farm.

How did others fare?

Jake