Friday at the Flicks - Blackbirds, Sparrowhawk

It's hard to remember that it is less than a week since the ground was covered in snow when I put out some sliced apple for the Blackbirds.



I have only seen the Blackbird with white head feathers once so I was lucky to be able to take some video of it.



For the first time I managed to take a short piece of video of a Sparrowhawk blending in as it sat in one of next door's old apple trees. Gerry Gutteridge, who is moderator of the All Things Sparrowhawk group on Flickr, told me it was probably wiping it beak having just eaten.



 Well, that's it for another year. It just remains for me to wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2011.



My thanks to all who have visited during 2010. I hope to continue to see you here and on your own blogs through the coming year.

Blackbird with a White Head

Over the years I have seen several Blackbirds with the occasional white feather, usually in the wing or tail. This morning in the gloomy, overcast early light I spotted one with a white head.

Only record shots as I had to up the ISO to 3200 to get any chance of a shot.





For some unknown reason the copies on Flickr are darker than the originals but I haven't time to adjust them as today is my annual meeting with the consultant to get the results of the tests done earlier this month.


Later:
Yearly visit for hospital checkup over and relief all round as was passed as all OK. The consultant was very pleased with the test results.  Back again next December.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Glo is getting to be quite a dab hand at working out my mystery pictures and was the closest last week with her guess of a Christmas ornament and candle holder. A gold star Glo. A silver star for Emma who identified the pine cone part. It was in fact a battery operated Christmas ornament with flickering artificial candles.



 We are nearly at the end of another year so here is the final puzzle picture for 2010:



Clue: Its technology is too old fashioned to be of any use in London 2012.

No prizes - just for fun.

Friday at the Flicks - Blackbirds, Great Tit

Robins are usually shown as the Christmas festive birds but for a change here is a Blackbird searching for the seed scattered on a snow covered lawn.



That was just one of the many which have been visiting each morning during this long very cold spell. There have been up to twenty six searching for food at first light. This gives a little idea of what it is like:



Finally for those following the Great Tit - it continues to use the nest box as a roost every night.



Wishing you all the very best for the festive season and hoping you don't forget that our wildlife also need to eat, especially in sub zero conditions where they can soon lose too much body weight trying to keep warm.

Another Little Ice Sculpture

The small ice sculpture on the pond waterfall I filmed a while ago had melted within a couple of days but very recently a new one has taken its place. Even while we have had night temperatures down to -9C and days when it has remained below zero the birds have continued to use the waterfall for drinking and bathing. The whole of the sides of it are covered with ice formed while the birds have been splashing about.



In places some of the nearby plants are covered in a thick layer of ice where they have been splashed. Starlings are the main culprits in the 'splash it all over' scene as they don't mind how cold water is.



Most interesting, to me anyway, has been the formation of another little sculpture, once again hollow where the running water still flows.



Only a bit of video can show the effect:



On a technical note it is amazing how well modern methods can compress a video. The original clips as taken by the Lumix totalled 225MB but using  a format called H264 this was reduced to under 20MB but still gave a good clear result. It certainly saves on upload time.

A Thrush Comes Visiting

It is a rare occurrence for me to see a thrush in the garden so I was delighted when I spotted what I assumed was a Song Thrush sunning itself in the tall leylandii yesterday. It was well fluffed out as the temperature was about -3C.







The soundtrack on the video clip has squabbling Starlings at the start and the tutting of Blackbirds right through. About half a dozen of the Blackbirds have caught on to the fact that I scatter seed as the daylight fades each evening. They hang around on the branches of nearby trees and come down for a last minute snack before finding somewhere to roost for the night.

More Blackbirds by the Dozen

The colder the weather the more Blackbirds arrive in the garden at first light. This morning, at -6.5C, I counted at least 26 Blackbirds milling around the back garden gobbling up the seed I had scattered late yesterday.

Watching this male Blackbird searching in the snow yesterday reminded me of an old television advertisement for a make of toothpaste which used the sound bite - Ring of Confidence....



Here a female Blackbird with its feathers fluffed out to keep warm.



Many of the birds show frost on their backs and wing feathers.

Wood Pigeon:


Rook:


Every so often a group of Goldfinches arrives. One day so many arrived I had to put up a second feeder just for them. They don't exactly welcome any other birds to share their food store.



A prolonged cold spell like the one we are having is very hard on wildlife. Yesterday it was mentioned on the television that small birds such as Robins don't have enough body mass to use to generate enough body heat over a long freezing night. Small birds like the Blue Tits can lose a third of their body weight in shivering (the way small birds keep warm) during a night of freezing temperatures. Last night's minimum here was just below -9C and even in the daytime it is only managing the dizzy height of -1.5C

There is a certain four legged hairy monster which insists on exploring from time to time. He goes out, has a quick enquiring bark to see if one of his girlfriends is about, ambles round his favourite spots and then charges back in and curls up in his chair - until the next time.