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.

I've not had too much time with the garden birds, since it's dark when I leave for work, and dark when I get home. Weekends have also been busy, with our relatives moving in and out of the county there's been lots of packing and unpacking going on.

Over the past few weeks I have recorded many of the typical visitors, but a single Great Tit sighting has been the only notable species to visit. The well stocked feeders have been attracting larger and larger finch flocks though, and today I recorded a record flock of 15 or so Goldfinch and 4 Greenfinch, all in the garden together. They're favouring the new feeder, and the cherry tree it hangs in, but also visit the other feeder and several even fed from the patio today - not something I've seen before! The only downside is that they make a lot of mess, and throw a lot of seemingly good seed onto the ground, much to the delight of the Dunnock and Robin. A group of four Collared Dove was also nice to see in the garden.

Arriving home from work, I picked out the garden's first Chaffinch amongst a flock of Starling on our roof. It was a male, and although I occasionally see them in the surround area, they've never ventured too near. I headed out to see the reported Stonechat on the Pit Tip Top, and on my return, a pair of Goldfinch were on the feeder - hopefully a regular sight over the coming months.

A week into the my new job and I'm missing the freedom to get out around the park. The weather conditions were good today and I've heard lots of stories about what's been turning up down the east coast. I decided to console myself with a bit of garden birding, which ended on a high note.

First off were a group of six Barn Swallow over to the south, two Long-tailed Tit were calling and a single Goldfinch was seen in a tree at the front. The back garden had already been quite active with one or two Robin, three Blue Tit, a Greenfinch and the usual hoards of Starling and House Sparrow. Woodpigeon and Collared Dove are still visiting the feeder on a daily basis. A Pied Wagtail was calling from the ridge tiles of a nearby house, and the first Dunnock of recent weeks was calling from the neighbour's conifers. A Great Spotted Woodpecker flying over and into the trees in Warren Primary was a flyover first. Recent sightings of Jays flying over, have been both frequent and consistent, and this morning was no exception, with at least two Jay over along with a group of seven Magpie, which was a notable garden count. Two Jackdaw in the school field were also an unusual sight.

Whilst watching some of the crows, I saw a large bird that drifted over from the direction of the Pit Tip Top. My immediate thoughts were of a large gull rather than a raptor, but getting the bins onto it, I realized it was an Osprey! I thought the time of year was okay for Osprey migration, so I quickly took some notes of the distinguishing features as it circled, before letting Holly have a quick look. I got back onto it in time to see it drift off to the west. Two months earlier and it would have been a lifer, but then again, it wouldn't have been passing over at that time of year!

The day finished off just as the sun was setting, with a group of ten House Martin calling as they passed over high to the south east.

A day of mixed weather brought a single Woodpigeon onto the feeder tray, and later a pair of Collared Dove. Starling, House Sparrow, and Greenfinch visited throughout the day. A small flock of nine Goldfinch were moving through the nearby trees, and were flushed by a Sparrowhawk hunting over gardens at the back. Earlier in the day a Pied Wagtail was seen flying low along the length of the road, and a male Chaffinch - an uncommon visitor to the nearby gardens - was in the trees of the primary school.