Icy and sunny new year

With Jim gone down with a bug and me recovering from the same bug, we didn't manage the longer new year's day walk that we often do - but nevertheless Tys and I were out for around an hour in the morning and another hour in the evening and again today. It's very cold and icy - the river flooded its banks a few days ago and much of the lying water is now ice, like the patch that Tyse nearly slipped into in the photo.

Yesterday I thought there was very little around - though when I stopped and looked into the trees at the edge of the arable field in Bury meadow there was a large brown bird perched not far from the rooks. It was at quite a distance so difficult to tell exactly what it was but from its size in relation to the rooks think it must have been a buzzard (though I did wonder about a tawny owl as it looked quite squat - but checking on its size it seemed to be much too big for that). I also saw the kestrel hunting in the morning. Interestingly it always seems to hunt around the ungrazed, rougher grass. Then when I went out again in the afternoon a kesrel was perched in the hedgerow (difficult to tell from the photo - I might have got closer but the dog walkers in front disturbed it...)

We walked onto the bridge in Newport having left the field and the flooded area was quite extensive (see photo).

Today it is also very cold but not quite as cold as yesterday and again very bright. We walked round the bury common river walk again (though the path over the stile by the mill is not passable because of the floods). Disturbed an egret which flew off quite close -very beautiful. We stopped along the river and watched the finches in the trees on the other side. There is a small clearing that is at the edge of woodland and quite rich in birds (and full of rabbits). There were several tits including some long tailed tits. Twenty years ago we didn't see many of these at all here but they are quite common now though we haven't seen them in the garden recently. Whilst I was watching I also saw a treecreeper - and had quite a good view as it flew from tree to tree. The river had little life on it, just a couple of mallards - and also a little grebe which was very shy.

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).