The fog and brighter weather forecast for yesterday never really materialised, and with a high of 8.1°C the day remained cloudy and overcast.

The feeders seemed quieter, and the box lay silent all day with not so much as a fly-by recorded by the outside camera.

Today however has been in stark contrast to yesterday, with a light frost overnight and a low of -0.8°C. The sun shone brightly through a light covering of clouds for most of the morning before the afternoon gave way to dimmer conditions. The high was 10.3°C.

Sunshine is good (not only for us humans) but also for bird activity. The box saw the greatest number of visits in one day (not all Blue Tits) and its earliest visit yet, at 8.41am:

Half an hour later and it was back again, this time spending 30 seconds to look over the property after only having spent 2 seconds on the first visit.

Halfway through its routine, we really thought it was going to venture inside - but not quite:

Maybe the last visit was a little scary, and it obviously doesn't quite feel at ease yet with the box, so 60 minutes later it called back. This time it clearly gripped the box is a different manner, and peered very suspiciously through the hole, and then thought otherwise as the garden looked far more inviting:

The fourth visit followed only minutes later, but somehow this time the bird looked different to the regular visitor. It can be difficult distinguishing different Blue Tits sometimes, but this fellow was definitely a bit on the fluffy side, and the wing markings are slightly different:

Was visit number five, an hour later, yet another new visitor to the box?

It hung onto the hole for about 40 seconds and continuously rotated its head in just about all directions. Quite comical to watch and looked just like a cat sitting still but closely watching a fly circling around it:

And then, just like earlier, another bird followed just 2 minutes later. It looked like the fluffier bird from before ...

With three different birds having visited in a matter hours, the day was going well - and then another new visitor arrived in the form of a Great Tit:

... and another was back mid-afternoon ... trying to see what was on offer, but there is no way it will ever get through the 25mm diameter hole:

In a day of surprises, there was still another to come. Having had the earliest visit so far, the latest visit of the season to date saw one of the newcomers from earlier make its third visit of the day:

Good stuff! ... But who will return over the coming days, and which one will be able to resist no more, and take the plunge to investigate inside?

There is a short compilation of some of the visitors today here.

Now that we have reached the end of January, the Weather Charts have been updated.

January this year was warmer than 2006, in fact a lot warmer, and also warmer than 2005 as the chart below shows:

Is all this the effect of Global warming? It does of course also mean that we could get a nasty cold spell to follow later which could have bad consequences for nesting birds everywhere.

And finally, below is the completed visiting pattern for January - excluding Great Tits!