Friday 18 December 2009

The forcast snow arrived overnight, depositing 4-5 Inches over my patch, it was still snowing hard when I left for work this morning, and walking the mile into work was quite hard work!

On the walk back from work LAPWINGS were very obvious as they moved around looking for a green space to alight, a flock of 13 were seen flying over Migrant Alley, as well as numerous single birds.

I arrived home to find the garden feeders were stacked with birds, the best being a single SISKIN, as well as the MOORHEN, which had been joined by another, an amazing record for my garden! A SONGTHRUSH that came in was the first since last spring.

There were so many Finch's, Tits, BLACKBIRDS, DUNNOCKS, ROBINS, HOUSE SPARROWS, COLLARED DOVES, and all the other common garden birds that it was hard to keep track! I did count a max of 23 CHAFFINCH though, I reckon there were over 100 birds in the garden at any one time this afternoon.

I did go out on my patch for 90 mins, I checked the lake, which was frozen solid, and devoid of anything, the wet woods and small holding were also empty, the deep snow made it difficult to see anything anyway. It wasn't until I paid a visit to a snowy Migrant Alley that anything interesting was noted, a flock of 45 Lapwing went over, and again there were many single birds. A YELLOWHAMMER and 2 MEADOW PIPITS flew north, a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL flew in the same direction, but the most interesting bird for me was the GREY WAGTAIL that was around the Greenhouse complex, as it was the first this month, species number 61 for December. Far to the north of my patch 3 large flocks of Geese went westwards, a bit frustrating, as I have not recorded any geese on my patch this month!

I took hundreds of pics today, i'll put a few more on over the wekend, but here's a few to be going on with.


Above: One of the two Moorhens that visited the feeders, strange to see them feeding with the Chaffinch's!

Below: The Siskin that came in for a short while


Below: A classic ''Robin in the snow'' pic.


Below is a mixture a GREEN and GOLDFINCH on the sunflower hearts, with a couple of GREAT TITS


The rest of the photo's are snowy scenes from around my patch, below is a photo of the trees in my garden

Below snowy crab apples at the scrubby area by the lake

Below is the wet woods
Below is the footpath from the wet woods to the lake

Below is the drive of a house by the lake

Lastly, this is the footpath from the small holding to the wet woods










19 comments:

Phil said...

Hi Warren, nice pics, like the moorhen, i've had a couple in my garden before, the end of which is only about 15ft from the lake but it always seems bizarre. Have you thought about applying for a grant from the lottery fund for your sunflower hearts.....must cost you a fortune!
Phil

FAB said...

Not snowed in yet I see! Let's hope you are still able to get out over the weekend. FAB.

Lancs and Lakes Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Yep Warren that's more snow than we get in a month of Sundays!!! Siskin...swine!

Cheers

D

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Like you , couldn't count the birds in the garden today , and putting out food and water almost on the hour .
Still haven't had a Siskin or Brambling yet .

Anonymous said...

Great post and pics, Warren.

Will you forgive me if i say, both you & Greenie make me sick with all your feeder activity ;-)

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kingsdowner said...

Lovely winter pics (what's going on with the five-bar gate?)
I trust that the 'classic robin' will be in your Christmas Day message.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Warren: The beauty of your snowy track and your beautiful birds made my trip to England mighty special today.

Pete Woodruff said...

Ahhhh....you got the snow Warren. None in our area in Lancaster yet but some in other parts of Lancashire we hear and there's more mentioned in the forecast this evening.

JPT said...

I saw a Grey Wagtail for the first time recently. Nice little bird.

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
Wow you do have much more snow than we have.... We do not have any at all! The world is upside-down!!! Beautiful pictures with this nice snowy atmosphere!

Ken. said...

Hi Warren.
I know what you mean about the walk in the snow. When I was working I had to walk to work which took me about 50 minutes, even in snow so I sympathise with you, although when you have done it for many years it becomes second nature.
As for your garden, it is nice to see such a variety of birds, it might cost a lot to keep feeding them, but it is worth it. When I was at Pinions on Friday getting another sack of sunflower hearts, plus peanuts etc I was surprised just how many people in front of me was doing the same.
It warms my heart to see that more people are now taking a interest in garden wildlife.
I like your Moorhen photo, although the shots of the footpath and drive are good to look at also.

Ken. said...

PS. Enjoy your weekend Warren. :-)

Anonymous said...

I like to see the sunflower hearts. We only use those these days and are able to buy them as "chips and pieces" as they are what is left when the perfect ones are sorted out like you have in the feeder.

We get them from the farmer's grain storage elevator and they are little black oil sunflower chips and pieces. Absolutely no waste as everything eats them that can get to them. Even rabbits and squirrels.

I enjoyed my look at your pictures and then had a look around your part of this world using Google Earth. Lots of places in this world I have never seen and it is nice to be able to look around.

I just visited Iceland and Chris' country.

Kingsdowner said...

"In answer to the five bar gate question - I take it you mean the loops of snow at the top ? That is barbed wire looped round and covered in snow! "
Cool!

eileeninmd said...

You have cool bird visiting your feeders. I wish I had those yardbirds.
Great photos.

eileeninmd said...

You have cool bird visiting your feeders. I wish I had those yardbirds.
Great photos.

EP Andy said...

Hi Warren

I seem to have got out at the right time. The scenery looks fantastic. Typical that I leave home when it's like this, I love snow. Hope all is well, its warm over here in Oz. Im typing this in my hotel room in Brisbane, its 33c outside and Im out on my feet of an all day birding trip. !40 species so far and 53 lifers.

So it's g'day from me mate and a happy xmas. Hope the weather improves for you soon.

Cheers

Andy

Sharon said...

Gorgeous snowy pics Warren. Love the Siskin photo too, we've not had them in our garden yet but fingers crossed.