Turned Out To Be A Good Garden Week! - 5th to 11th December, 2016

My last post (which you can find here) featured a splendid Monday 5th December, when we had a garden 'lifer' in the form of Green Woodpecker, and a 'year tick' with three Mistle Thrush. with Hedgehog and Great Spotted Woodpecker adding to the photographic opportunities.

I published that post on the following Saturday evening, little knowing that within 12 hours I'd have two prophetic 'year tick' sightings - I'll explain later!

Here's an account of the rest of the week, which for the most part was dull, grey, and damp, to the extent that the outside security lamps were operating even at mid-day every day:

WARNING: Mainly because of the weather, the following photography is rubbish but the images, such as they are, are there for the record.

Tuesday 6th December

Not a particularly auspicious day, with only 15 bird species setting foot in the garden. One Mistle Thrush was still with us, and the other item of excitement was a male Sparrowhawk, which left empty-handed.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (male) - our garden on 6th December

Wednesday 7th December

We managed to up the number of bird species by one, to 16. Missing from the previous day was Sparrowhawk, with Great Tit (a bit elusive at the moment) and Stock Dove (a very infrequent visitor) making up the numbers. No photos from this day.

Thursday 8th December

We were out all day from 10h00 for a family meeting, so only clocked 8 species before we left. Again, no photos.

Friday 9th December

The day got off to a good start with three Goldcrest (previous life record for garden = 2) in the Rowan tree at 09h12. The light was dire that day! The fourth image, below, is there because I'm always amused by the glum face a Goldcrest shows from the front.

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) - our garden on 9th December

At 10h36, a Mistle Thrush arrived. The light was a little better (but not much) by then.

Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) - our garden on 9th December

It didn't stay long, but returned briefly at 11h16 when the light was back to 'dire'.

We ended up with 16 species touching down in the garden that day.

Saturday 10th December

Again, the weather was extremely dull and a bit damp. The tally for the day was 18 species, including Mistle Thrush (2) and Stock Dove. The only birds I photographed, however, were Bullfinch and Goldfinch, through the glass of my study window. 

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) (male) - our garden on 10th December

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) - our garden on 10th December

Sunday 11th December

It was late on the Saturday night that I'd published my previous post, at the end of which I'd said that we'd now matched our garden record of 38 species for the year, and "I only need a Fieldfare or a Redwing (for example) to break my garden record".

Less than 12 hours after writing that, at 08h27, a Redwing landed in the Rowan. It was only there for a few seconds, but I did have my camera with me and got a few misty record shots through the glass of  our bedroom window.

Redwing (Turdus iliacus) - our garden on 11th December

At 09h40, two Mistle Thrush arrived in the Rowan and started devouring what was left of the berries. Here's one.

Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) - our garden on 11th December

I had only just updated my last post to say we'd now had Redwing "now where's that Fieldfare?" when, less than 5 minutes later, a Fieldfare arrived!

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) - our garden on 11th December

The Fieldfare made a couple of visits but, once again, the weather was not on my side.

We ended up the day with a healthy 20 species putting a foot down in the garden. 

The Week

The weekly total amounted to 25 bird species, which equals our record (achieved on 4 previous occasions). Birds seen were:

Blackbird (10)
Bullfinch (1)
Chaffinch (9)
Dove, Collared (18)
Dove, Stock (1)
Dunnock (3)
Fieldfare (1)  (garden year tick)
Goldcrest (3)
Goldfinch (15)
Greenfinch (1)
Magpie (2)
Redwing (1)  (garden year tick)
Robin (2)
Sparrow, House (10)
Sparrowhawk (1)
Starling (8)
Thrush, Mistle (3)
Tit, Blue (2)
Tit, Coal (2)
Tit, Great (1)
Tit, Long-tailed (1)
Woodpecker, Great Spotted (1)
Woodpecker, Green (1)   (garden life tick!) 
Woodpigeon (12)
Wren (1)

Mammals seen:

Hedgehog (3) - yes, still not hibernating
Squirrel, Grey (2)

This week has been somewhat quieter with all but a few shrivelled berries gone from the Rowan. The last Fieldfare was on 12th December, and the last Mistle Thrush (3) and Redwing on 13th December. 

Today (18th December) we have, however, had the delight of our first garden Redpolls (2) of the winter.

Thank you for dropping by. Sorry about the quality of the images - unless we get some improved weather soon, there's not much prospect of any better ones in the near future!