Another Year
Thursday January 1 2026 Early for us these days, soon after 8.40, on a very cold, ice-covered puddles morning. Clearng the car windows of overnight frost and ice, delayed us by at least ten minutes. Better than last year when my birding journal tells me that gales and rain prevented us from going out. Neither of us remembered that. Although it was dull and overcast in a biting northerly wind, our garden birds were already active. I missed the Long-tailed Tit but started with a small number of common birds we often miss on our trips out. Blue and Great Tits for example. We'd hit 20 species by the time we left Selbrigg , Nuthatch, Coal Tit and two Marsh Tits the highlights. Marsh Tits have disappeared from our garden and these were the first we'd seen for many months. Tha eagerly anticipated mixed finch flock on the Harpley quinoa crop, was totally missing. They can't have finished all the seed available. There was a car in front of us, maybe they'd gone off...