Saturday was spent firstly in High Wycombe as Adie was in a Judo competition, her Judo coach is the only person that calls her Adelaide (unless she's been bad !) - we had to get there for 8.30 so it was an early start (She won a gold medal !), and then afterwards we drove into Central London to see a show (Umoja) which was a Christmas present for Adie. There were 'Severe Weather' warnings for the day but it worked out perfectly as the snow only arrived when we were around 30 minutes from home around 7pm. Overnight it snowed - it wasn't as bad at home as predicted , we only had a few cms. 3 miles up the road in Haslemere there was c15 cms. Sunday was spent at home feeling warm !
The snow revealed several overnight tracks across the garden, Pussy Cat, Fox and then .. Badger !, which I'd suspected before but have not yet seen evidence of one, but we were able to follow it's route around the place - Some chopped apple and seed left for the birds on a stump had vanished and the Badger must be the culprit but other than planning a midnight vigil with torches I imagine the beast will remain elusive to viewing.
Birds in the garden were still in good numbers with the 30+ strong
Chaffinch flock still holding the 2
Bramblings. 4
Lesser Redpolls and 4
Siskins were regularly on the feeders with up to 10
Goldfinches and a still only a single
Greenfinch. Along with
Great Tit, Blue Tit and
Coal Tit a party of 8
Long-tailed Tits visited in the afternoon and a single
Marsh Tit was seen with a brief visit. Early morning around 20 F
ieldfares flew over and 6
Redwings were on the path flicking leaf litter near the Chicken pen. A male
Sparrowhawk had at least 3 attempts at grabbing lunch near the feeders but as far as I could see went away empty-clawed. 2
House Sparrows had a half hearted attempt to extract food at the seed feeders but appeared not to know how best to use them and gave up - strange but that's the first visit to feeders by House Sparrows this year. Other regulars of N
uthatch, Great-Spotted Woodpecker, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Starling, Jackdaw, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Pheasant made several appearances.
Now I need to make a plan for the Paddyfield Warbler !
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| Signs of a big fat Badger |
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| Followed all the way to the food |
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| The tiny Woodland pond has been frozen for a few days |
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| The snow retreated pretty quickly in the morning. |
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| Snowy Brambling in the garden |
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