Tuesday 12 January 2010

Grey Days

Quite a change in the weather. Most of the snow around the village has now disappeared except for the occasional place where the Sun can't reach this time of year. At least the temperature has remained above zero but the sky has been covered in thick cloud. We are back to typical dreary Winter weather. I was hearing this morning how some parts of Australia have had night temperatures in the 30s C but I think I will keep what I have. I find those sorts of conditions harder to cope with than out low temperatures.

A few photographs from the past week. Along with the constant hordes of Blackbirds there has been the occasional visit from a Rook - sometimes digging in the snow

Rook in the Snow

more often giving the fat balls a good bashing much to the enjoyment of the smaller birds which gather underneath to catch the spillage.

Rook at the Fat Ball Feeder

Surprisingly I have rarely seen the Goldfinches at the feeders. At one stage I was getting worried that they had succumed to the cold weather but every now and then a few appear to reassure me that they are still around.

Goldfinches 5

The weeks of snow we suffered were early for this part of the country so I wonder whether we will get more in mid February, when it usually arrives around the time the schools have their half term break.

6 comments:

  1. John, it's grim out there the finches brighten things up.

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  2. That Rook is really going to town on those fat balls.
    Good to hear your Goldies have returned. Mine have been absent a while now.

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  3. Strange you should mention the lack of Goldfinches John, I have noticed the same thing here, I wonder in my case if the Blackbirds, Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons have been putting them off. The larger birds usually stay away from the feeders where the smaller birds feed but of course this weather they are frantic and all over the place and the Blackbirds in particular are very aggressive at the moment.

    Our snow is still hanging around and more forecast for tomorrow.

    Lovely photos, I can't get decent ones at all at the moment.

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  4. It is cold, Adrian, if nothing else.

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  5. They do Keith. Such large strong beaks, they soon demolish them. I wonder where the goldies were finding their food in the really bad snowy conditions.

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  6. It does seem strange, Jan, that they were about the only species missing when so many birds were flocking to eat. Nothing else eats from the thistle seed feeders so there was always plenty of room and they are fairly bold birds not easily put off their food. They must have been eating somewhere.

    It is so dull today I needs the lights on at 10.30 in the morning. Pretty useless light for photographs at the moment. At least when it snowed there were breaks with bright sunlight.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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