What a difference a week makes……..

Last Saturday (31st Jan) we visited the hides at Linford Pits (this is part of the now nature reserve where the barn owls and short eared owls live). It was bitterly cold, but very bright and sunny. From the hides we watched various ducks: mallard; gadwall; wigeon; pochard; teal and tufted ducks and snipe in the reeds – and we could see a fox curled up asleep on the opposite bank. Their coats must indeed work pretty well for anything to be able to sleep in such cold weather.

But this week it has been snowy, with sufficient snowfall on Monday to make cycling to work an option I did not feel like taking, and just as the cycle paths looked as though with another day they would be clear we had another substantial fall on Thursday. Much of that melted, but Friday brought further snow which although much has melted from the town, is still a few inches deep in the field. Interestingly, thyme (see picture) seems to cope fine with the snow and there has been sufficient to use in the garden all winter.

The river is still flowing but the shallower stretches of water in the hollows in the field have frozen over and indeed two such ponds have joined up, making a new feature in the field. A couple of meadow pipits were wandering over the ice on the frozen pools and I wondered what they might be finding, as they mainly feed on inverterbrates. It is only in the last couple of years that I have noticed them in the fields nearby. I have always thought of them as moorland birds that I have seen on my upland walks – but then noticed a flock of what looked like meadow pipits in the field near the river near where I walk with the dog (see the photo) And indeed, a bit of reading up revealed that they often spend winters in farmland.
I have put breadcrumbs, cheese, sunflower seeds and the odd worm I could find on the table in the garden. I don’t usually feed the birds as we have two cats – but in this weather the cats spend all their time safely indoors. We have seen a blackbird defending the new feeding station and a robin feeding but little else – I would imagine it would take birds a while to find, check out and use a new source of food (unless they are very bold – like black-headed gulls, which don’t come into the garden).