Arriving home from an afternoon at Rufford CP, a male Sparrowhawk was perched on the roof of one of the houses in our street. I got a pretty good view before it flew off over the gardens in the Rise Park direction.

This weekend was the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch again, and I chose the Saturday morning between 8:50 and 9:50am to do my recording. Plenty of the gardens briefer visitors managed to evade the count, by visiting just before and after the time. I did get good numbers of finches though:

1 Blue Tit
11 Goldfinch
7 Greenfinch
8 Siskin
3 House Sparrow

This morning saw Kestrel added to the garden year list, as a male swept over the gardens in the direction of the Pit Tip. A fresh fill-up of all the feeders brought in good number of finches, with Goldfinch peaking at 19, Siskin at 10, and Greenfinch at 5. Also present in the garden were a pair of Blue Tit, a Robin, a Dunnock, two Collared Dove, two Woodpigeon, five House Sparrow and small groups of Starling and Blackbird.

Woke up to hear and see a Mistle Thrush singing on the TV aerial of the house opposite us, which constitutes a garden life tick. A Grey Heron flew over being mobbed by a flock of Black-headed Gull, and a flock of seven Common Gull were battling with the winds. The Siskin were in good numbers again, as were the Goldfinch and Greenfinch, and a single male Chaffinch visited the garden a couple of times feeding on seed from the lawn.

On my way out to the park a Green Woodpecker flew over toward the Pit Tip. The Siskin flock grew to ten, now outnumbering the other finches.

Plenty of photo opportunities with the garden's increasing Siskin flock today. Two Long-tailed Tit flying off from the a tree at the front were the latest addition to the garden year list.

The male and female Siskin were in the garden together today, and two Pied Wagtail in the road together behind the garden added a tick for the year list. The blinding sun throughout the day made viewing difficult, so I stuck to doing some DIY.

The juvenile Siskin was happy to visit the garden alone again today, and repeated the behaviour of yesterday. I've also put up a new nyjer feeder and peanut cake feeder. The Goldfinches love the nyjer seed, but nothing has touched the peanut cake.

Today I filled up all the feeders and put out a fat cake that my daughter and I had fun making from her hands-on nature book. The garden was alive with birds, and the finch flocks were in strong numbers (20-30). The male Siskin was present again, and two Coal Tit visited the garden - one well-marked individual enjoying the fat cake, and a duller one on the main feeder. Highlight of the day was a very active finch flock that brought with it the garden's first ever Chaffinch. Two males and a female fed on seed dropped from the feeders. It's taken a while to get these birds to actually come in to the garden, so I hope the heaps of seed that gets scattered by the other messy eaters will bring them back. In the late afternoon, a single juvenile Siskin visited the garden alone, and enjoyed sitting in the piles of seed collected in the feeder tray for at least five minutes.

After a low-key new year's celebration, I wasn't up too late this morning. A brief glimpse out of the window started off the garden year list with the ever-regular finch flocks of Goldfinch and Greenfinch, but one bird stood out. A single female Siskin was amongst the others, and I captured a bit of footage whilst it was on one of the feeders. Later in the day, a single male Siskin was present, and also posed for some footage. A great addition to the garden list.