The Weight of a 20p Coin—24 September 2026

Among twenty-nine suggested identifications this morning was a goldcrest.

One of Britain’s smallest birds, it weighs about the same as a 20p coin. Some are resident here, while autumn also brings goldcrests across the North Sea from Scandinavia—an improbable journey for something so tiny. I’m sure we’ve seen them here in summer, so hopefully, ours are year-round residents.

Around that tiny bird was a remarkably busy soundscape:

Robin, chaffinch, wren, house sparrow, house martin, carrion crow, great tit, blue tit, coal tit, goldfinch, meadow pipit, rook, dunnock, chiffchaff, white wagtail, siskin, bullfinch, blackbird, goldcrest, jackdaw, redpoll, redwing, jay, mallard, hooded crow, great spotted woodpecker, buzzard, linnet and starling. Not recorded, because they are being uncharacteristically silent, are the pheasants, currently putting all their energy into scavenging the hen’s food.

The mallards are often on the pond and regularly fly across the yard and over the house on their way there. The linnet is quite at home among rough grassland, scrub and autumn seedheads.

The house martins are still here, although a redwing has now joined the morning recordings. It’s sometimes sunny and warm and at other times dreich and chilly – exactly how autumn is supposed to be. Very little leaf fall so far, which is extraordinary, given the drought during the summer. Catch it at the right moment and you could kid yourself that it’s still summer.

Birds are identified mainly by sound using the Merlin Bird ID app. The list is a record of what the app detected rather than a confirmed survey, so occasional misidentifications are possible—especially with unexpected or particularly exotic visitors.