Nothing spectacular I am afraid. I duly settled down (in so far as you can settle down when standing up! ) and spent an hour yesterday morning taking part in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 2016 Big Garden Birdwatch. The idea is to record the maximum number of each species that visit at any one time. A task that is easier said than done especially for a novice like me. It is fairly easy when an easily identifiable collared dove comes and lands in the garden but most of the activity was from smaller birds, constantly flitting about in the bushes and trees. Unfortunately, no one had told them that it was Big Garden Birdwatch day and they should arrive in orderly groups for easy counting purposes. The other slight problem I had was with the light. I am not making excuses but the early morning light could at best be described as ‘very dull’.
My results in full were: goldfinch 6 chaffinch 6 blue tit 5 blackbird 2 collared dove 1 dunnock 1
The surprise was no robin made an appearance and no magpies popped by. The RSPB also ask that you should record any other wildlife and a grey squirrel appeared during my hour so I will be recording that when I send my results in.
Apologies to residents in the Brandlesholme area if your Saturday morning was disturbed by our Conservative team out and about. It was good to chat to you all.
Finally commiserations to Bury Football Club for losing out to Hull City in the FA Cup. Hull look likely to be in the Premiership again next season so it would have been a surprise had Bury won but they had done well to reach round 4.
David Nuttall 
For the record, In the Pimhole area of Bury NO birds of any variety tend to visit my garden at any time. 🙂