RSPB Garden Bird Count

The female woodpecker arrived earlier in the morning, however she was wary and flew off when she noticed me and the camera, fortunately the male - above - turned up later on several occasions and although the image is not great it shows off his fabulous colours.

Today we did the RSPB garden bird count. For an hour after filling the feeders we counted thirteen different birds in the garden. Are they normally around?

The count included the usual range of birds like the robin, blackbird, chaffinch, great, blue and coal tits. And then the best bit followed with a gold and green finch, a pair of dunnocks, the woodpecker counted as one, several Siskin and rock doves and beauty of beauties a long tailed tit. I couldn't believe it, right in front of the window and on its own, we tried to follow its flight in the hope of spotting others but no such luck.

Missing from the list: the gold crest, wren and treecreeper.