The most common bird in the garden is the House Sparrow. There is usually a flock of up to twenty feeding on the peanuts or roosting in the bushes.

There are always a few Collared Doves and Woodpigeons hanging about looking for bread on the birdtable or bits of peanut underneath the feeders.

Dunnocks are another daily visitor usually skulking underneath the bushes at the top of the garden. Two or three Blackbirds are usually about and they feed on the windfall apples in the winter.

All of these use the bird bath for drinking and occasional bathing. They are often joined by a flock of Starlings who are very noisy bathers - they usually all try to get in together and all the water ends up on the ground.

Blue Tits visit the peanut feeders daily but they have to wait for the Sparrows to finish.

There is often a pair of Magpies in the vicinity but on the rare occasions they come into the garden they are chased off by the Collared Doves.

Other occasional visitors include Great Tits, Robins, Goldcrests, Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Wrens. Swifts fly overhead in the summer.

Siskin, Goldfinch and Blackcap have appeared once or twice in the winter months, and Kestrel and Sparrowhawk have both visited briefly, attracted presumably by the flock of Sparrows. A party of Long-tailed Tits have been seen in the front garden, where Mistle Thrushes feed on the cherry tree in the summer.

Since January 2001 I've been recording the birds in my garden for the BTO's Garden BirdWatch survey. My results for the first twelve months can be found here.