Snow at Easter

As usual these days i'm a bit behind!

Like many we had a large snowfall over the last week and it's taking some melting. It's been a while since we've had snow at Easter.

Last weekend our garden looked like this.

This weekend the garden still has a fair bit of snow and I found a pot of daffodils abandoned in the garden from last spring!

Our young cat Kevin loves the snow, she spent a lot of time charging around in it having an absolute blast, she may possibly be the only one sad to see it go.........

Yeadon Tarn

A visit here at the beginning of February brought another new bird to add to my list - a Goldeneye, such a beautiful bird too.

 There were plenty of swans out on the water and on the jetty.

Pochard

The ever present Coots and Moorhens

Such a beautiful day but we were numb from the wind by the time we'd walked around!

I love this place, even after all these years there's always something new to see there.

Waxwings

After a tip off from a friend back at the beginning of January I made a small detour on the way to work to see if I could spot the elusive Waxwing!

They had been seen on the Sunday in the local park but as I couldn't make it till 3 days later I wasn't holding much hope. Luckily for me there are plenty of trees filled with berries there and they'd hung around, I spotted them straight away. I didn't have long to hang around but managed about 5 minutes watching around 30 Waxwings and a handful of Redwings flitting between the trees.

A new bird for me, well worth the detour and a great start to the new year.

Back at the park a few days later and the trees were pretty much stripped bare with just these few berries left.

It's been a while!

I didn't realise it had been over a year since I last posted. Life just took over unfortunately leaving me little time for anything else. For the first time in years I didn't even get chance to do the RSPB garden bird watch in January.

Of course we still have the birds in the garden and even had a visit from a Waxwing a couple of weeks ago, my second only ever sighting of one and a lovely garden tick! I only got chance to take a distant picture.

I'm hoping to do a few catch up posts and then try and post a little more over the coming months. I'm looking forward to catching up on all the blogs I've been missing out on too.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

I spent an hour doing the Big Garden Birdwatch on Sunday afternoon. I wasn't too hopeful as the birds have been a bit on the quiet side recently and visits to the garden have been sporadic.

In the end I got 9 species down from 12 last year. The numbers were down too. I was bolstered by the appearance of a female Blackcap in the last five minutes of the hour. It's only the second time i've seen one in the garden, the last time it was a male.

3 Blackbirds
1 Blackcap
2 Blue Tits
2 Collared Doves
1 Dunnock
4 Goldfinch
6 House Sparrows
1 Robin
2 Starlings

A couple of bad pictures of the Blackcap taken through the window, by the time i'd grabbed the camera it had flown off into next doors garden.

Fairburn Ings

We took a trip over to Fairburn Ings just after Christmas and despite the freezing winds we spent a few hours there.

Even managed a new bird for me, a Redpoll on the feeders by the visitor centre.

The feeders were very busy all around the reserve.


At the Lin Dyke hide we spotted plenty of Canada Geese, Black Headed Gulls and Mallards. A lone Lapwing stood in the water and there were Wigeon, Tufted Ducks, Moorhens and Mute Swans in the distance. By the edge of the water there was a group of Teal.

There were plenty of other birds around too, Fieldfare, Cormorants, Chaffinch, Blackbirds, Robins, Dunnocks, Moorhens, Coots and Pheasants.

The lake was heaving with Swans, Mallards and Black Headed Gulls all trying to get a look in at the feed you can purchase from the shop. The strong winds made it hard going for the Gulls but they are persistant!

At the park

Had an early morning walk around our local park today, spotting plenty of birds and squirrels amongst other things along the way.

Some early blossom.