I was interested to see one of the classes at St Joseph and St Bede RC Primary School had been doing a project on birds when I visited them this week. We discussed my life long interest in observing birds in one of the answers to their many questions. Anyway, it reminded me I have been meaning to report on the findings of my hour spent counting the birds in our garden last weekend. I seem to recall I have in past years tried to do the hour early in the morning but last weekend for various reasons it was Sunday afternoon before I was able to set aside an hour to carry out the task. It was noticeably less busy than previous years but I saw eight different birds: blue tit (4) chaffinch, collared dove, blackbird, goldfinch, great tit, wood pigeon, magpie (2) .