Let's go with
shitloads for now, at least until somebody comes up with something a little more evocative and poetic. They're everywhere - in every bush, tree, hedge, patch of weeds and alleyway. We're seeing three figures per day just in and around the village, with flocks of up to 20 on favoured shrubs (
flocks of Blackcaps - quite a novelty).
That they're often concentrated around fruiting shrubs (Ivy and several other common species are at their berrying peak presently) may go someway to explaining their abundance in the area at the moment. When we were here a few weeks ago, there were only a fraction of these numbers present, and it's tempting to speculate that they've timed their arrival to coincide with the bounty, and spend perhaps a week or two staging here before heading north.
