Breeding Bird Survey!

Bright and early this morning I did the first of my two BBS visits to ST5974 (covering Montpelier, St Andrews and St Pauls). The totals counted were as follows:
Lesser Black-backed Gull 10
Herring Gull 4
Woodpigeon 16
Collared Dove 3
Wren 6
Dunnock 2
Robin 10
Blackbird 4
Blackcap 3
Long-tailed Tit 2
Blue Tit 9
Great Tit 6
Magpie 7
Carrion Crow 13
Starling 2
House Sparrow 16
Goldfinch 8
Feral Pigeon 30

Incredibly low numbers of Blackbird, Dunnock and Magpie but of course you only record what you see or hear during the survey itself so it may not be a true reflection of the situation. Two odd things happened - and no, I wasn't arrested for using binoculars in a built-up area - there was a dead fledgling Jay on the pavement in Chesterfield Road which was rather sad and also there was a swarm of Syrphus hoverflies around a shrub in Ashley Hill. I reckon there were between 15-20 of them!

Later at the station there was a cute little Zebra Spider out hunting on the wall and up to 6 Holly Blue butterflies around Ivy on the disused platform along with several Orange-tips - similar numbers to a couple of days ago. A Brimstone also made an appearance.

Zebra Spider