Sunday 21 February 2010

Winter Aconite, a Change of Diet, Goldfinches in the Snow

The cultivated Winter Aconite corms I bought on eBay arrived a couple of days ago and they were left to soak over night in rain water before being planted in the rockery.

Winter Aconite Corms

It is a plant I have always wanted so now I am looking forward to my own display of cheerful yellow flowers to welcome the Spring. I hope they will eventually look like the ones in the local church yard.

Winter Aconite

In a trough in the garden the yellow crocus seem to have appeared out of nowhere.

Yellow Crocus

Yesterday I noticed a couple of birds on feeders where I don't usually see them. These last few days the peanuts seem to have come in to fashion again after being ignored for many weeks. These House Sparrows were pecking away when a small piece of peanut fell out of the feeder. The sparrow on the right deftly caught it and flew off with its prize.

Sparrow With Peanut

Quite a surprise was to see a Coal Tit on the slab fat feeder. Usually they are just interested in sunflower hearts for eating straight away or black sunflower seeds for taking and storing.

Coal Tit

It has been snowing for the last hour so I can see it is going to be another day of keeping warm and watching through the window.



The above was filmed a short while ago. It has now been snowing for three hours. As the snow continued more and more birds arrived to frantically top up from the feeders.

12 comments:

  1. Funny how they know. They are usig the feeder I hang on the van very rare! must cost you a fortune in food but cheaper than a TV and more entertaining.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope your Aconites do well, such cheerful little flowers, your Crocus are looking good too!

    I find the Coal Tits usually go for the fat treats in preference to other food in my garden.

    We had an enormous amount of snow fall in just over an hour early this morning but thankfully most of it has now gone as fast as it came.

    Lovely photos and video as usual and good to see (on the previous post) that there is still interest being shown in the nest box.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Adrian. Much more entertaining than most of the TV output these days.

    Have you tried out your instep walking spikes yet? I couldn't find any like that on the net but got a different type. Wore them for the first time today - brilliant, Snow, slush, ice - no problem.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Jan. I do hope the aconite grows OK. I read that they are harder to get going from dry corms so I can but wait and see.

    Very unusual for the Coal Tits to visit any of the fat feeders here so it was quite a surprise to see one hanging there.

    Just over an inch of snow this morning, slightly melted, slush where people and cars have been, some beginning to freeze.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The crocus look nice John; a welcome splash of colour.
    Heavy snow here this morning, but then the sun came out later. Crazy weather; can't make its mind up.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes Keith. Any colour is most welcome at this time of year.
    The Sun came out here, melted some of the snow and slush but now the temperature has dropped and it is turning to ice. No wonder the poor old birds and frogs have no idea what season it is.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautiful Crocus John.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I hope the aconite give you a beautiful display of flowers. The crocus are certainly beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hello Roy. I often think many varieties of Crocus look at their best before they open fully.

    ReplyDelete
  10. For some reason I am not seeing any of your photos on my computer. I will try again tomorrow on my office computer. The video comes through loud and clear, though. What a noisy bunch of birds you have! Sounds tropical, somehow, in spite of the snowfall.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello Mick. I hope so too Mick. I don't think you can beat a bit if Crocus colour at this time of year.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello Wilma. Sorry you had problems. I guess ther was a glitch with the Flickr site. I have seen that happen occasionally. The video is on YouTube so would not have been affected at that time.
    It was noisier than usual as there were so many Starlings and House Sparrows about.

    ReplyDelete

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

Related Posts with Thumbnails