Snow at The Lodge

photo taken with iPhone 4S

Footprints in the snow

Badger and fox prints on my way to work.





photos taken with iPhone 4S

The Lodge in The Snow

Frost and snow

Think these are Woodcock tracks

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Icy spiders' webs

An icy, frosty Lodge

Manx Loghtans grazing in the frost

Bitter oranges

the Ivel valley

icy windscreen

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D or Canon Powershot A640

Times are hard

...especially if you're a bird. In case you haven't noticed, it's flipping cold outside.

I've been doing my bit to help at home. Garden birds here have been offered a full variety of foodstuffs, including apples, table mix (includes wheat, oats, sunflower hearts, maize etc), black sunflower seeds, fat balls, fat block things and, best of all, porridge oats. Porridge oats are dirt-cheap and loads of birds eat them. Even Reed Buntings, as I've discovered.

Much of the water locally is frozen up. It's hitting birds like Kingfishers, wildfowl, waders and herons especially hard, as they simply can't feed.

From the Bedsbirds email group:

"Sadly a frozen dead Grey Heron was seen by the bridge still standing in the water tight up against the bank and still in hunting posture"

There are plans in place to help Bitterns, amongst other things; they're getting sprats put out for them at key locations. Which reminds me - stay off the whitebait.

Perhaps things will get better this week, as it's due to get up to about 3 degrees C on Friday!

Despite - or perhaps because of - the terrible weather, there have been interesting things to see. The garden list for 2010 (if there was such a thing) got off to a good start with our regular Marsh Tits putting in an appearance, plus the rarer species House Sparrow, Starling, Sparrowhawk and a female Bullfinch briefly. The latter is a garden mega!

We've had up to three Reed Buntings coming to feed, too. I've even seen them seeking out the seeds from the long grass surrounding the pond, which was nice to see. Now the garden's untidiness is justified entirely.

I visited my parents on New Year's Day. This was a very pleasant experience, but tinged with jealousy. They have two Fieldfares coming to their windfall apples. We don't get Fieldfares in our garden, only in the big tree briefly. If that was not bad enough, one came within three metres of the house to eat pyracantha berries. And I had left my camera at home.

Next morning I saw a female Blackcap coming to bathe in their pond. Haven't had a wintering Blackcap in my garden. Grrrr,

On Thursday lunchtime I watched a flock of 30 Redwings burrowing into snow-covered leaf litter in search of bugs to eat. They were getting right among the leaves, so must have dug through the snow to expose the leaves and their inhabitants. I like to think that birds are tougher and more adaptable than we give them credit for...

photo taken with Canon EOS 30D

It's cold outside

Going outside is interesting now we've experienced an Extreme Weather Event (TM). People living outside the UK may be amused to hear that we've had about five inches of snow locally (though some other areas have had almost twice that) and again, we can't really cope.

I managed to get to work (where I took the above photo) in about twice the normal time but we got sent home early in case it got any worse.

At home, I've been out in my jimjams (and a fleece) to feed the birds before doing anything else. At the moment we've got black sunflower seeds, peanuts, niger seed and a fat-filled coconut out, and I've also found some porridge oats and sultanas (I'm not sure if anything has eaten the sultanas - maybe the Jackdaws).

It looks festive and fun for us humans, but I'm sure the birds don't appreciate the thick coating of white stuff everywhere. Hopefully my small efforts will help see them through the tough conditions.

Snow more

Well, it snowed and snowed and snowed. We had literally several inches of the white stuff! Apparently this copnstituted a "major snow event". The country "ground to a halt", naturally, but I drove to work every day and managed not to stuff it into a hedge, a ditch or any other vehicles. 

Now, the snow is on the way out. It's good news for wildlife, but even when it was at its worst, I watched two Blackbirds chasing each other around in the garden, and a pair of Robins doing the same. You might expect them to suspend their territorial disputes in those extreme conditions, but they didn't. 

Last weekend, we watched a herd of Fallow Deer trot and canter their way across the field, including one striking cream-coloured hind blending in well with her surroundings for once. The stag was hardly the monarch of the glen, with rather feeble antlers it would be generous to describe as a 'pair'. 

Great Tits seem to have begun singing in earnest this week. Outside my window, there's a Chaffinch singing rather half-heartedly, a Dunnock twittering away and earlier, a Greenfinch made a half-baked attempt at the "butterfly" display flight. A male Reed Bunting briefly in the garden is a typical winter bird for us, but the pale tips to the feathers on his head and throat were few and far between, leaving smarter black plumage ready for the breeding season. Male Tawny Owls have been calling in the small hours lately, waking me up on several occasions, but I've yet to hear a female answer.

The next thing will be to see if any amphibians turn up in the pond once it's ice-free.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Il neige

Another day of snow. It's stopped falling, but landscape looks rather lovely with its white coat on.

As I was de-icing the car before leaving for work, I heard my first singing Chaffinch of the year, cooing Stock Doves, a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker in the tree just across the road, and watched two Blue Tits in some kind of courtship display - there was much high-pitched calling and wing-quivering before they flew off. At work, I've spotted a pair going in and out of a nestbox and making adjustments to the entrance hole, so it's all another reminder that spring's waiting behind the snow.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

Es schneit

As usual, now that we've had about two inches of snow, the useless Brits - or, perhaps I should clarify, the English - can't cope. I had to drive to work at a top speed of 30mph, but it was do-able and by the time I went home (earlier than usual) the roads were a bit damp but otherwise fine. Apparently it's the heaviest snowfall in the south-east for 18 years.

Whilst at my desk I couldn't help but stare out of the window at the snowy scene outside, and wonder how the birds were coping. I watched a few Goldcrests pecking and fluttering amongst the pine needles. They seemed to be finding tiny morsels to eat, but it must be tough for them.

A flock of Long-tailed Tits was calling when I went outside to top up the birdfeeder, but today there was no sign of the Nuthatches that have been whistling noisily for the past couple of weeks.

Sound-wise, I heard my first Song Thrush song of the year last week. It was an unlikely setting: I was waiting in the car outside the Co-Op while Rizlas were being purchased inside, and through the fog and the car window I heard the repeated notes from a Song Thrush. I wonder what made him start singing? It was a horrible morning.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

In the bleak midwinter

In the south of the UK, we're at the stage where any snow at all causes problems. We don't know what to do anymore. Last night, a whole inch of snow fell. I felt pretty brave just going outside at lunchtime in search of sheep - it was literally freezing outside!

It took us a while to locate the flock - they'd sensibly headed for the sunniest, most sheltered, snow-free area. I suppose it should have been easy to follow the hoofprints to their hideaway, but it wasn't. On the way there were loads of rabbit prints and a few fox - rabbits were once an important commodity at Sandy. A few Redwings and Fieldfares were flying around, and a single Meadow Pipit. Times are hard for birds at the moment.

So, today's sound was of snow crunching as it compacted under my foot. Crunch, crunch, crunch. So much nicer to tread on fresh snow where nobody else has already. It's not much fun once it gets dirty and slushy.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Snow

We finally had snow, but it hasn't lasted. Mostly melted by lunchtime.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

What's left of the snow

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

'sno fun when it's this cold

Male Bullfinch


Female Bullfinch


Water Rail! (not bad for an action shot?)


Railtrack

There's no disguising the fact that there was next to no light at all today... Some more snow overnight had made everything look very pretty, but taking photos was hard work. Hence the poor standard of the images above.

The Bullfinches seemed unusually confiding. They allowed quite a close approach as they fed on seeds close to the ground. The Water Rail was good fun. It fed busily in some waterside vegetation before legging it through the snow across the footpath - which led to the photo of two of its footprints...


Snowy teasels


Snowy umbellifer

digiscoped photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 62 with 16x eyepiece