Big Garden Bird Watch.

We had planned to do our bird count yesterday, but the weather was so abysmal that only a couple of birds turned up; it seems that they would rather go hungry than get cold and wet. That goes against the science as, during the winter, small birds are struggling to survive the night without eating and risk dying of hypothermia unless they had a good supper last thing in the evening, followed by a good breakfast first thing in the morning.
 
I was reading today, that the most commonly reported birds during the bird watch are house sparrows, followed by starlings. Ironically, they are the most endangered species having each suffered a decline of sixty to eighty percent in the nearly forty years that the bird watch has been going on. We’ve taken part for most of those years but we have friends who really take it seriously; they do their stint continuously during the daylight hours of the week-end and then submit their best hour's results.
 
We generally give up after forty-five minutes as that is about the same time that the birds disappear to pastures new, leaving a lawn full of food for Merlin to clear up. This year is, to the best of my memory, the first time we have recorded long-tailed tits, they’ve been regular visitors since we started putting out peanut butter for them four weeks ago; but my favourite is always the rooks as they swagger about with ill-fitting trousers and unkempt wings. But just look at his beak, he could do damage with that.