New Garden Records

Whenever we have wet and windy conditions birds flock to the garden feeders and this last week has been the best in the forty four years that we have lived in Castleton with two new records and one equaled. Firstly we had a minimum of twenty two species per day and on three days twenty three species. On the 20th we had a record twenty Blue Tits feeding together, plus on the same day five Jays, which equaled our previous best. Today, the 23rd, at dawn a record fifteen Long Tailed Tits fed on the feeders before the male Sparrowhawk appeared and missed my head by inches!

Along the canal at dawn ,on the 19th, two Waxwings were feeding on Hawthorne berries but had gone ten minutes later. At Rhodes Lodges on the same day four male Goosanders were feeding.