It's Been a bit Blowy

For once the forecasts were accurate. As the day progressed so the wind speed increased with some mighty gusts thrown in. The only damage I've seen so far was when we went for our afternoon walkabout. Our usual round the block route was blocked as an ancient Ash Tree had fallen across the main street:



The extra problem slowing down the clearance is the live wires in the street lamp which was crushed in the process:



Nothing for it - we turned back and retraced our footsteps home.



According to the Lincolnshire Police Twitter feed there have been 150 reported incidents on our roads so far of which 75% are fallen trees.

Fences were the only other things I noticed as suffering, including my oldest panels in the front garden which I expected might disintegrate. In fact three of them have broken in half. It is a good job I had already decided it was about time to replace them so I wasn't too bothered.

 

There are flood warnings all down this coast as the low pressure combined with high winds and a particularly high tide will cause a storm surge of water down the North Sea. I read that some coastal areas in Norfolk have already been evacuated. Let us hope the surge doesn't match the devastating coastal flooding of 1953. At least we should be better warned and prepared this time. I see there are severe flood warnings for the south of Lincolnshire.

At 6.45 p.m. the Environment Agency confirmed that the North Sea tidal surge is the worst since 1953. Many coastal towns have flood warnings and some sea water has overtopped the sea defences with about an hour to go until high tide.

More Nestbox Investigations

This time (Tuesday) it was Great Tits showing interest. Right at the start of this video a pair can be seen near the top right hand corner:



The zoom effect was created in software. (trakAxPC)

A Great Tit also made a couple of inspections on Wednesday. So far I have not seen a bird venture inside.

Magpie

Occasionally a lone Magpie drops in to see what is available:



If there is no scattered seed try the apple trees next door:

Webs Eye View

Very misty morning on Monday which showed up many of the spiders' webs.
These were taken with the Nikon S9050 looking through webs, processed in Photomatrix Pro using the Grunge Detail Enhancer then cropped in Irfanview:

Macro on Monday - Answer

Oh dear. It looks as though I had everyone fooled last week with:



It was a close view of the new catkins on my corkscrew Hazel. I always find it amazing how early these catkins are produced. They will stay tightly closed all the way through the Winter cold weather and open up with the warmer weather next Spring. The bush will eventually produce nuts very much like the ones many like to eat:



My grateful thanks to all those who have attempted to identify the mystery photos over the year. I will probably start again in the New Year.

New Nestbox Investigated

When I replenished my seed stock a short while ago I also purchased a nest box which was on offer at £4.99. It is an unusual shape so was interested to see what, if anything, would use it. One of the reasons it is cheap is that it seems to be designed to fix to a wall so didn't have a back. I used some scrap wood to cover it in.

A few days ago I put it up in a reasonably secluded position hoping to attract a Robin or Wren as that is the size of bird it is designed for:






Today I got Round Tuit and installed a camera to monitor any visitors. Not long after I had finished a Blue Tit was captured investigating the box a couple of times. It didn't go inside but did give the camera the once over!



If you are thinking of erecting a nestbox don't leave it until Spring. Birds start looking late Autumn and early Winter to see what is available and may use the box as a roost through the cold weather.

Every time I remember to look I can see that the Great Tit is still roosting overnight in the camera nestbox:

Sunsets Get More Spectacular

Wednesday:





Saturday: