… and finches and thrushes and starlings and all the rest of the birds in my garden. It’s that time of year again: the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. I’ve been sat comfortably in my dining room with a mug of coffee, a notebook and my binoculars - although I’m only looking the length of the garden, the far end where the bird table and trees are is quite a distance away.

I also had to do some cat-herding, because once they knew I was awake, they all piled out of the garage and immediately got interested in the birds. I shut all four in the living room; then had to separate a couple because of squabbling. I’ve given in again now and put them back out, and there’s at least one sat under the bird table. (Which is an improvement - she often sits in it.)

Also today, I am mostly … doodling once more

… for Doodle Week. I missed December’s because I keep forgetting about it, so I’ve subscribed to the RSS feed so I never have to miss another one (unless I choose to, of course).

Today’s theme is ‘What it’s like in January where you live’. I did think about doodling my back garden, with the trees and the snow we had last week, but January after all for me is bird-feeding and -watching time. I make sure there’s always bread and seeds on the bird table, plus a fat ball or two and the peanut feeder. I watch the visitors from my window next to my desk upstairs, and get excited every time I get an unusual visitor; we’ve had a pair of collared doves this year for the first time, even though they’re pretty ubiquitous. I don’t get gold-, green- or bullfinches very often, so I’m always pleased to see them. I didn’t get anything very exciting today though; just the usual gang.

So today’s doodle, naturally enough, is an anonymous bird on a peanut feeder. (I’m not good enough to draw an actual species; this is sort of like a very dark sparrow.)

… because it’s their annual Birdwatch this weekend, where they ask people to spend an hour watching the birds in their garden or park.
This year, I saw fewer species than usual - no greenfinches or coal tits, and no sign of our resident dunnocks - but I saw greater numbers of the species I did see.

Also today, I am mostly … doing some work

… because I’m starting to get very anxious about our next deadline, and I want to make sure I can get some more of the Author-it conversion done asap. Bah. Not really how I want to spend my Saturday (or Sunday, since I’ll probably be doing more tomorrow) even if it is only a couple of hours a day.

… with the baby binoculars Colin bought me for Christmas. They’re excellent! We have a big stand of hawthorn trees at the back of my garden (with a bird table underneath) and in the past little while I’ve seen sparrows, starlings, chaffinchs, blue tits, great tits, blackbirds, jackdaws (their staring grey eyes creep me out), a song thrush and the robin (there’s generally only one per garden because they’re extremely territorial).

Also today, I am mostly … not recovering from last night

… because I didn’t drink enough to need to recover from. I have been drinking more alcohol and eating more food than is good for me over the past week and a bit, of course, since that’s what happens at Christmas (much too much turkey, for one thing - ours this year was over 20lb).
Back to work tomorrow though, and into some good habits of decent food and as much exercise - even just walking and using the exercise bike - as I can manage. I want to find out if my local leisure centre has an aqua-aerobics class, too.