🐦⬛ Garden nature diary – January 2024
Species list for 2024 click here
January 1
Birding from the upstairs window at first light, looking over the garden and the woodland.
In a couple of hours saw 23 birds, in order of appearance: blackbird (m), dunnock, carrion crow, wood pigeon, magpie, song thrush (2), goldfinch, chaffinch, blue tit, great tit, great spotted woodpecker (m), feral pigeon, robin, long-tailed tit (c.20), house sparrow (m), mistle thrush (1,2), collared dove, raven (2), ring-necked parakeet (2), stock dove, wren, jay, coal tit.
January 3
Birding from the upstairs window for an hour late afternoon.
Added two new birds for the year to take the total to 25.
house sparrow, blue tit, chaffinch, wood pigeon, dunnock, goldfinch (c.25), great tit, magpie, robin, blackbird, herring gull, sparrowhawk, carrion crow, feral pigeon
January 5
Up to 26 species with a lesser black-backed gull in flight.
January 7
Species number 27, a greenfinch on the feeding station.
January 10
Two stock doves beneath the feeding station.
Two robins in the garden, although not a pair as one was chased away.
Wren feeding among alyssum on the patio.
Jay in flight across woodland.
Species number 28, a black-headed gull in flight.
January 11
Five dunnocks on the ground around the feeding station and the hedge.
January 12
Feeding wren on the lawn and the patio.
January 14
Nine goldfinches on the feeding station at one time.
January 19
Half an hour or so in the upstairs room looking across the valley at first light.
goldfinch, blackbird, dunnock, wood pigeon, feral pigeon, carrion crow, chaffinch, blue tit, collared dove, magpie, black-headed gull, robin, great tit, great spotted woodpecker (m)
January 22
What looked like a small carrier bag was being carried high in the sky by the strong winds and it was being inspected by a curious herring gull.
Good view of a goshawk, soaring high over the wooded eastern slope of the valley and heading in a NE direction. Bird number 29 of the year.
January 23
A wren feeding on the patio. They love to explore the pots.
January 25
Male sparrowhawk landed on the lawn beneath the feeding station in pursuit of Daison, our friendly feral pigeon. He escaped by two seconds.
January 26
Three ravens soaring high over the wooded eastern slope of the valley.
A common buzzard also soaring over the valley. Thirty birds for the year.
Up to 31 species with a great black-backed gull in flight.
January 30
Up at 6.00 a.m. and, although it was still dark, there was a robin singing loudly in the immediate area.
We’ve had a sparrowhawk lurking in the area for a few days now, which has had a detrimental effect on bird numbers.