As a loyal RSPB
member I took part in the Big
Garden Birdwatch last weekend. As our flat does not come with a garden, I
took myself down to the park (Cherry Tree Wood) for
an hour’s birdwatching on a sunny but windy Sunday morning. As well as many
pigeons and three black-headed
gulls (thanks to the recent weather, the ground is sodden; last summer,
ducks were sighted), I saw some redwings,
tits of the great
and blue
varieties and even a goldfinch,
which I didn’t recall having seen in Cherry Tree Wood before.
Being a committed birdwatcher (or should that be ‘birder’?
I am currently reading Bill Oddie’s Little Black
Bird Book and he thinks that the term ‘bird-watcher’ is old hat), I keep a
record of the birds I see, and after writing up my sightings I was able to
compare them with what I
saw in Cherry Tree Wood the week before (when it was snowing) and what I
saw in Cherry Tree Wood when I did the Big Garden Birdwatch last year. I
was a little disappointed that the goldcrest, the long-tailed tits and the
singing wren didn’t make an appearance this time around, but I can note with
satisfaction that I saw the same number of species (eleven) as I did last year.
My records also show that I have seen a goldfinch in Cherry Tree Wood before – on 10th
January 2010 to be precise. How could I have forgotten? In my defence, it was
one bird three years ago and to paraphrase from one of my all-time favourite movies,
I wrote it down so I wouldn’t have to remember it.
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