JANUARY was, not surprisingly, dominated by the weather. The extensive snow and low temperatures led to a mass emigration by the larger birds and high levels of mortality, particularly among farmland species.

The one bright spot was the arrival of uncommon birds in gardens.

Undoubtedly, the species I received more calls and questions about than any other was the fieldfare.

This handsome thrush is about the size of a blackbird, but with a grey head and rump, and a rufous brown back.

In most years, it is a reasonably common winter visitor, but generally stays well away from habitation.

However, with the snow forcing birds into gardens, many people really noticed this striking bird for the first time.

This was replicated all over the country, with the longrunning Garden Birdwatch survey showing a 267 per cent increase in the use of gardens by fieldfares compared with a typical winter.

A fine flock of 100 birds were even tempted into the central car park at County Hall, Northallerton.

As the snow cleared, there also appeared to be an influx of bullfinches to gardens, and I received lots of reports.

In my own small village garden, I had more sightings of bullfinches in the last few days of January than in the previous 20 years.

Other unusual sightings in gardens included good numbers of reed buntings, water rail, moorhen, snipe and even woodcock.

A little further afield, one householder in Newholm, near Whitby, was even luckier, with a very rare blackthroated thrush turning up to feast on the apples in their garden.

One of only a handful of Yorkshire sightings, this bird attracted a steady stream of admirers and was still present at the time of writing.

It is the nature of most birdwatchers to concentrate on the rarer species, but there are times when common birds can surprise you too.

For example, I opened my curtains on New Year’s Day to see our small Siberian crab apple tree literally covered in birds voraciously devouring the fruits.

A dozen species included blackcap and all five thrushes, with no less than 42 blackbirds.

Interestingly, all the blackbirds were males – is there an equivalent garden further south inundated with females?

Out in the fields it was a much different picture, with many birders reporting a virtually birdless scene, although typically skulking species were forced out into the open, so there were more reports than usual of water rails and woodcock, including two birds in Ainderby Steeple, the first I’ve ever seen in the village.

As the weather improved, there was evidence of birds moving back north, with good numbers of geese seen, including a flock of 11 barnacle geese at Bolton on Swale, a marked northward movement of pink-footed geese (including a skein of 250 birds over Hutton Magna), and, at Nosterfield, five white-fronted geese and two bean geese. The latter is a particularly rare visitor to this area.

Other sightings of note included up to 11 whooper swans at Ainderby Steeple, three stonechat at Thorpe pools, Mediterranean gull and yellow-legged gull at Nosterfield reserve, and the long-staying bittern at Flask Lake, Nosterfield.

This bird was still present in late January, so thankfully survived the hard weather.

Looking ahead, February often sees the early signs of spring, with flocks of oystercatchers passing through in the second half of the month.

Particularly good sites to look for them include Nosterfield, Marfield Quarry, near Masham, and Thornton Steward reservoir.

Geese are also usually on the move, with flocks of pinkfooted geese passing over and a good chance of a scarcer species, such as Brent or white-fronted geese among the greylags and Canadas.

It is also worth checking the flocks of wildfowl at sites like Bolton on Swale lakes or Nosterfield as February is the best month for locating that most striking of ducks, the smew.