You may recall back in January the RSPB held its annual Big Garden Birdwatch, where ordinary people all over the country counted the birds in their garden for an hour and sent in their results. Well they've finally added it all up (must have been doing it by hand) and the results are in!

I won't steal their thunder too much, but it looks like many small birds are bouncing back after the bad 2009/2010 winter, with Goldcrests (the very smallest of our small birds) doubling in number. Similar good news for Long-tailed tit, Coal tit and Treecreeper. I must say I've seen a fair few Treecreepers in the past year compared to those previous. I am a bit surprised that this most recent winter hasn't had a similarly bad effect on birdlife, but I suppose it wasn't as bad the winter before it.

The single most common bird is apparently the House Sparrow, averaging four per garden. I certainly have squawking flocks of them fighting in the bushes at the moment.