New Year's Eve bird count

31 December 2013

A one-hour bird count around our local woods and fields.

2 blackbirds
5 blue tits
2 great tits
3 coal tits
12 long tailed tits
9 chaffinches
2 crows (or jackdaws)
3 jays
2 mistlethrushes
1 treecreeper
2 wrens
2 crossbills (?)
5 goldcrests
4 siskins

The tits had congregated in some alder trees, eating the catkins.  The jays scoped us out from the top of some big oak trees.  We saw the wrens flitting about in some reeds in the field.  The crossbills flew by overhead so we didn't get a good look at them.  The goldcrests were hidden in the spruce and calling to each other.

We did a loop up and over the field above the houses, into the woods and up to the gravel parking area and across the road, down along the powerlines to the farm track, then up the road toward the kennels for about five minutes at the end and back to the house.

It was getting dusk by the end. We should have gone earlier but I was looking for the waterproof notebook.