Since my last visit it has got even colder. The snow which fell a few days ago still lies on north-facing slopes, and all the available water has frozen solid.
On the bright side it can't get any worse. From now on talk will be of the approaching spring. Not today though. It always amazes me that birds can find anything to eat in such icy conditions, but I was pleased to see several well stocked feeders at the Netherstead barns. A pair of Long-tailed Tits were gratefully dangling from fatballs in one garden.
Away from human habitation I found myself crunching around Stapenhill Wood hoping for a Woodcock. There were none, but I did hear a Jay and was entertained by a couple of male Robins fighting over a patch of mud under the trees.
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| You can't beat a winter Robin |
The rest of the landscape was classically wintry, and birds were in short supply.
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| Chilly |
I wasn't surprised to find no Stonechats today, moved on (or passed away) perhaps. However, at least 100 Redwings, 25 Fieldfares, 30 Starlings, and 50 Lapwings were still toughing it out in the pasture bordering the Morton Brook.
The flashes were frozen, but I still saw a Snipe and a Grey Heron there. All the wildfowl had gone, although a single Greylag Goose circled in the hope that things might have changed.
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| Greylag Goose |
Actually I could have been forgiven for staying in our garden today. The last few days had delivered a Fieldfare, back to eat the latest apple I had chucked out.
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| Fieldfare |
But the highlight had come yesterday when a Red Kite had circled the garden, perhaps hunting discarded Big Macs, causing me to dash around the living room to grab my camera for a record shot.
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| Red Kite |
I usually think of sightings of Red Kite as a harbinger of spring, but not this time.
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