11 January - Garden Birds and Crossbills

With the persistant cold weather, the feeders in my garden in helpston are not surprisingly very busy as birds seek easy and energy efficient ways of feeding.

Yesterday I had a small flock of 20 chaffinch feeding under the main feeders, as well as (at any one time) 6 great tit, 5 blue tit, 2 coal tit, 4 long-tailed tit. There were also up to 5 goldfinch on the nyger seed as well as two great spotted woodpecker and most interestingly two wagtails. One of these is definitely a pied wagtail with its obvious black head and back, but the other has much more of the look of a white wagtail, with no black on its head or back at all and an olive-green wash around the eye and forehead.

A quick walk around Southey Woods this morning and the crossbills are still very evident in the old picnic area, feeding high in the spruce trees and occasionally flying over head calling, with their sharp contact call like two stone being knocked together. I saw six this morning, but there have been reports of up to twenty.