The Beast from the East eventually hit a home run this week and dumped a hefty snowload on the county. Monday and Tuesday I again had to go to Malta. It was freezing when I went to Gatwick on Monday morning and I parked in the long-stay carpark in the North Terminal and was cursing as I just missed a bus when I parked up and it had just started snowing. I was right next to the fence of the car park and was stunned when I heard a
Lesser-spotted Woodpecker start drumming in the tree the other side of the fence, so I ended up being fairly pleased I missed the first bus. Getting home Wednesday night I was slightly worried about the roads making it home as it was still snowing, but lightly enough to get home around midnight. I was in London on Wednesday when there was heavy now and had difficulty making it home on the trains , but on Thursday it came down heavily and we were fairly stuck at home on Thursday and Friday.
The bird life at home was fairly frantic as a result of the weather, spiced up by a
Golden Plover that flew over the house on Friday morning looking lost, another house tick, and several large
Lapwing flocks with a total of 58 birds seen.
Brambling numbers went up to 12 and for the first time in weeks several
Fieldfare and
Redwing reappeared. Saturday morning another
Hawfinch was seen, again at the top of the large Ash tree before flying down into the copse and a
Peregrine, 4 Red Kite and a
Raven were others of interest. I walked towards Blackdown in the snow and although picturesque was reasonably lifeless.
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| SNOW !!!! |
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| It snowed for hours |
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| Snow sheep |
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| Chaffinch and some Bramblings |
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| The male Bramblings are in particularly smart plumage |
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| Appropriately large white rump and lower back |
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