All change...

The clocks went back an hour last night. That means no more daylight hours at home until the weekends. It's going to be a long four months...

As the wind was in the west today, I decided not to do very much at all and only had a couple of walks onto the patch morning and afternoon. As it happens there were a few birds to be seen...

In the garden, a Tree Sparrow was with 40+ House Sparrows at the feeders along with 7 Goldfinches.

We walked Bunty down to the pond where Jane fed the swans some breakfast. On here 3 imm type Goldeneye lifted and circled around before heading off east. This was the first time I've seen them on here. 2 Buzzards soared and called overhead, while Marsh Tit and Kingfisher were heard only. On the way back, 25 Redpolls and 8 Siskins were drinking from a ditch in the village wood and 3 Redwings flew over.

In the afternoon we were sorting through some stuff in the loft when a pager message came through about 2 Firecrests down the Howick Dene at the end of the Long Walk. I wonder if I missed them on Thursday or are they new in? Anyway, off I went for another walk down to see if I could add them to my list. Although they were elusive it didnt take too long to locate them both, cracking males too, in some bare srub where they showed well for 15 minutes before moving on. Thanks to the finder for putting the news out promptly.

Also here 1 Jay and 15+ Long tailed Tits.

The route home was via the coast path. This was largely uneventful with only 1 male Goldeneye, 1 female Stonechat and 2 Red throated Divers going into the notebook.