As a relative Big Garden Birdwatch veteran of 20+ years, I didn’t expect to see something I’ve never seen before on my one hour watch.

That is exactly what happened though. Overall my numbers were down on last year – the flock of house sparrows that numbered around 35 individuals in 2016 only numbered seven this year; there was a handful of blackbirds, just one starling, twos of blue and great tits, seven woodpigeons, two robins three collared doves, three dunnocks,

I was chuffed to get several appearances by a coal tit though. They are relatively scarce in my village, as is their conifer habitat, but my garden is flanked by several large Leylandii and that gives them the shelter they like and a warm microclimate where spiders lurk, even in winter.

I’m pretty sure that Anna won the prize for most species among the Nature’s Home bloggers – well done Anna! However, I’m happy to let the title slip for the sight that I saw - for this year anyway...


Which coin weights about the same as a goldcrest? (Ben Andrew rspb-images.com)

10p piece
With five minutes to go, something tiny flitted down into the elder outside my kitchen window. I scrambled for the binoculars, as I’d hoped it was a goldcrest. Any idea which coin this bird weights roughly the same as? You can find out if you are correct by scrolling right to the bottom of this blog.

It hopped up the gnarly trunk and then to my complete surprise, jumped on to the cage feeder containing a suet cake: a tiny round bird clinging onto the metal cage. I have never seen a goldcrest on a feeder before.

After the Birdwatch hour was up, it was back, this time in our cherry tree. The cherry tree is the hotspot for feeders and birds in our garden and the plucky little fellow fended off blue and great tits, robins and house sparrows to edge its way into the centre of the tree where it promptly hopped onto the fatball feeder – another first!

I wondered if the insects in the suet cake in the cage feeder had attracted this insect eater. The fat balls had only seed though, so maybe it had developed a taste for suet?

So there you have it – even if you’ve been doing the Birdwatch for years and years, that one hour can still throw up a real surprise. Just to prove it wasn't a one off, the goldcrest was back on the suet cake on Saturday, a week later.

We're sorry for any difficulties you experienced over the weekend submitting your results, Hopefully you've been able to submit your results by now.

Have you had a goldcrest, or anything else unusual, on your fatballs?
I’d love to know if you have! Please mail natureshome@rspb.org.uk or leave a comment below.

How much does a goldcrest weigh? Roughly the same as a ten pence piece!