I heard my first chiff chaff yesterday, so Spring is officially here! It doesn’t feel like it as I’m walking round wearing a fleece inside the house, but it will soon be warmer, I’m sure.
When my best friend died, a while ago now, a friend of mine had lost her husband round the same time and in memory of him, she gave me some Jonquil bulbs, which I planted over Odie’s grave and here they are in full bloom – just in time for my birthday :)
Here he is…
Well, they’re far from perfect but have you ever tried to photograph flying tits, lol? It’s a nightmare. Of course John managed it and I’ll post some of his photos when I get them but his email’s down right now. Here are a few of my blurry attempts :)
Notice the bullfinch in the background? There were so many finches (chaffinches, bullfinches, greenfinches), tits (coal tits, long tailed, great tits, blue tits), LOTS of tree sparrows, the resident robin and many others. A real treat to be so close. We see most of these at home (not bullfinches) and more and they’re pretty close to the kitchen window but we only get to see through glass and sadly can’t take photos. Unfortunately, the woodpecker didn’t make an appearance that day.
The one above is worth enlarging – it’s a tree full of long tailed tits – beautiful :)
It’s at times like these that I wish I had a better camera but at least I have one :)
Just back from the park in the cold and found this, so just did an internet search to find out what it is. Apparently, it’s a Muscovy duck – a farm/domestic type duck which doesn’t like water much and even eats small rodents, such as guinea pigs, mice, rats, hamsters, etc – unusual?
Much to my surprise, the lake at the park is part frozen – I really didn’t think it was quite so cold!! Brr – I’m cold now, having been round the park. It’s still frosty and was foggy until lunchtime but the sun was out when we left…
For the last couple of weeks we've been privileged to have flocks of seven or eight of these little birds in our tiny garden several times a day, feeding on fat balls and coconut feeders - aren't they gorgeous? Wish I'd taken the photo but sadly, they move so fast my camera wouldn't catch them and they are SO nervous that I'd never get near enough. They're one of our tiniest birds, though - if not the tiniest - not sure if Goldcrests are a tad smaller and Coal Tits aren't too far behind. They do look bigger because of their long tails but if you look closely, you can see they're nothing but a little ball of fluff on the end of a stick, lol :) Unfortunately, they have a really high mortality rate in Winter and especially when it's as cold as it has been. They have so little surface area that they lose heat fast, even though they sleep huddled together to keep themselves warm.
This one may give you an idea of just how tiny they are…
As you can see, the snow’s almost gone from most of the garden now, though it’s still thick in the road and on the pavements at the front – no sun there, whereas the back gets sun all day – when it’s out!
It’s been VERY wet today – miserable and cold even though the temperature’s up a few degrees – certainly doesn’t feel like it cos it’s damp.
Must post some family pics – will do that over the weekend :)
Finally managed to get my little girlie. Not sure if you can see it here but her right foot is totally bent backwards under her leg. I think she’s the one Lynne and I rescued from a Sparrowhawk a couple of years ago. The following day when I opened the door, she flew down and sort of bounced at my feet by the door because she was scared and desperate for food but when we tried to pick her up, she managed to fly off. She’s pretty trusting, though :)
This was early this morning, before more snow but you can see their footprints were already pretty deep.
I kept clearing a space for their sultanas and mealworms but the snow was falling so thick and fast today that they were being covered with snow not long after I’d put them out!
At least there’s a bit of shelter under the heavily snow laden trees – I’ve bashed it off here, so the birds can sit on the branches more easily.
This is my favourite local ‘Nature Reserve’ – Mere Sands Wood – and these are the branches set up for the Kingfishers, so that they can be seen more clearly from the hide we were in. As you can see, there were NO kingfishers that day and sadly, I’m wondering if we’ll see them again for a long time after this deep freeze. As you can see, despite the sunshine, the whole of the Mere is absolutely frozen solid!
