RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch & Garden birds

This weekend saw the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which was as frustrating as ever when finally getting my hour and the birds fail to show! It would have been better to make up my hour in 20 minutes stints over the whole weekend I think!

I ended up doing my hour on Sunday morning and these were the results submitted

Blackbird 2
Blue Tit 2
Robin 2
Great Tit 2
House Sparrow 1
Bullfinch 1

Despite these low results my garden has been flourishing bird wise in recent weeks in fact about half an hour after i'd done the Birdwatch, it was hit with 11 Long Tailed Tits and 2 Coal Tits. Typical.

The result i'm most pleased about is the Bullfinch, which showed up for the first time ever in my garden on Saturday with two others - 2f & 1m. They hung around on and off all day & I was hoping they'd still be here today, in the end only 1 of the females was but still, it was good of it to make an appearance during my hour.

I'm regularly getting the above birds along with Goldfinch, Collard Doves, Sparrowhawk, Magpies. I used to get Dunnocks and Woodpigeons but have seen neither in quite some time.

Here are a few photos taken this year, all through the window (which needs a good clean) and yes the feeder does have a bit of a lean thanks to a battering from next doors cat making a leap for some lunch (and luckily failing)!

Winter arrives

We finally had our first (and maybe our last?!) snow of season on Saturday evening, I couldn't help but take a short walk out in it, everything looks so much prettier at night when it's covered in snow!

Sunday morning I was up early and out for a walk in hope that I could enjoy the snow without too many people about. There's something peaceful about a snowy walk!

The local park was looking quite beautiful and there were just a few dog walkers about as usual for a Sunday morning.

In fact the dog walkers and their dogs were having a snowball fight, lots of fun!

The Blackbirds were out in abundance and looked quite striking against the snow.

I spotted a couple of Mistle Thrush, a few Sparrows and a couple of Great Tits but bird wise it was very quiet.

Back home and the snow was already starting to fall off the trees but the garden still looked good and our resident Robin, who pretty much lives in the tree next to the bird feeder was very obliging and posed for a few photos.

Snow falling on a weekend when I don't have to go anywhere and then being gone for the Monday morning commute to work is the kind of snow I love best!

North Cave Wetlands

I had the chance to escape Christmas for a while on Tuesday and headed out to North Cave Wetlands. The weather was quite gorgeous and the place was getting busy as we finished our walk. We'd got there early as it's always nice to have those quiet moments on a walk.

Some of the birds we saw around the reserve, most notable being the Marsh Tit (hiding a little too well) and the Lesser Redpolls by the maize field.

We even managed to spot a Little Egret and a Kestrel, both of which were too far away for any kind of photo.

The weather was so nice we even made use of the picnic tables at the new seating area overlooking the village lake.

All in all a nice escape!