Christmas cheer

View west, Sunday 27 Dec. Rain on Ice on compacted Snow.

Spent the holiday in Snowy Norfolk - and all of that was at J's house (apart from Christmas day dinner with "the mother" in the care home). Managed a little ringing on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day but it was more of the same; 40 birds, 21 of which were recaptures of ringed birds. However, I was able to get a better handle on the potential numbers of birds coming to the feeders.

Here are this weekend's figures, followed by this sessions retraps (in brackets), then by the December total (=2 visits), retraps this month from last, and Novembers totals. Any retraps during the same month have been removed.
Dunnock    0, 1, 0, 1
Robin    1, (2), 3, 0, 0
L-t Tit    1, (2), 12, 1, 7
Marsh Tit    0, 3, 1, 2
Coal Tit    3, (5), 38, 8, 24
Blue Tit    10, (11), 37, 4, 52
Gt. Tit    3, (1), 21, 2, 17
Chaffinch    0, 4, 0, 6
Grenfinch    1, 4, 0, 1

View east, back garden gate leading to Ling Common (a wood)

A recalculation of  the figures confirms "population sizes" of ~100 Coal Tits and ~130 Gt. Tits. However, the latest numbers would suggest there may be ~400 Blue Tits in the area. Long-tailed Tits remain a bit nebulous with a recalc., somewhere in the range 50-75, so I'll stick with ~63.

So far, no Siskins or Brambling on the feeders, although we are starting to get Goldfinch and Pied Wagtail now and again as winter progresses. Normally, we don't see a change until January or even February.