Counting the Garden on the First of December
December 1, 2024 · 3 min read
I do a one-hour count from the kitchen window on the first of every month, same window, same hour as near as I can manage, 8 to 9 in the morning. Today was 3 °C, overcast, with a light wind and the lawn white with frost until about half past eight. The feeders had been refilled the evening before: sunflower hearts in one, a mixed seed in the other, half an apple on the lawn and fat on the hawthorn.
Fourteen species, which is about average for December here. House sparrows were the most numerous at 12, mostly in the hawthorn waiting their turn. Goldfinches 6, chaffinch 1 male, greenfinch none. Blue tits 5, great tits 3, coal tit 1 taking one seed at a time and flying off to the apple tree to eat it. Blackbirds 3, two males and a female fighting over the apple. Robin 1, dunnock 1 under the feeder, wren 1 along the fence bottom. Wood pigeon 2, collared dove 1, starling 8 arriving all at once at a quarter to nine and leaving together four minutes later. Magpie 1 on the shed roof.
The highlight was not on the feeders. A goldcrest spent nearly ten minutes working the apple tree from the top down, hovering under the branches to pick things from the bark, a tiny olive bird with the yellow stripe on the crown that flashed orange when it turned to face me, which means a male. They do not come to feeders and I see one in the garden perhaps twice a winter. Then, at ten to nine, a troop of long-tailed tits came through: I counted 11, which is the biggest party I have had here, all over the fat in a chattering mob for about ninety seconds and then gone down the gardens towards the river.
A note on hygiene, because December is when it matters. I lost greenfinches to disease three winters running until I started washing the feeders every two weeks in hot water with a little disinfectant, letting them dry fully before refilling, and moving the ground feeding spot every few weeks so droppings do not build up. I have had no sick birds since. The greenfinches have not come back in any numbers, but at least I am not making it worse.
Next count 1 January, if the frost allows. The bird bath will need the kettle.