Saturday 28th. January 2012

Had to stay in this morning for a delivery , and , what a surprise , it didn't turn up . And so , with the best part of the day over as regards weather , grey clouds once again rolled in . So anything I saw today was to be out of the back bedroom window or the back garden . Early on the 3/4 Fieldfares that have been seen on next door's Cotoneaster berries , which are being devoured quite quickly now ,

 turned up for their breakfast , but as usual , sat for a long time in the trees above the berries to make sure there was no danger , or persons with cameras around . Eventually , these birds gained

confidence and dropped down to gorge on the ripe berries . Some of the Cotoneaser bush is obscured by a conifer , and being further away and out of view of the houses , a popular area for the birds to drop down and feed out of view , so I never really know how many are feeding at any given time . It

wasn't long before more calls could be heard and more birds joined the initial few . I can only think that one of them 'tweeted' , as even more birds arrived . As the earlier arrivals had done the looking bit , these later arrivals flew straight into the Cotoneaster and started eating the berries . I would estimate that there were 25-30 birds at any one time on the bush , but the most I could manage to get

in one frame was 12 . The first shot was the only one I managed from the garden , before being spotted , and all the birds flying off .
Whilst at the window , I also did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch , and with the Fieldfares , which

flew over our garden to get to the berries , finished up with 17 species .Finches were well represented

with Goldfinch , Chaffinch and a species that has been in decline recently , but four of which turned

up to be counted on the day , Greenfinch . Of course , as is usual with this count , after the hour was up several other species showed themselves , and I'm sure some of them were sniggering .