Snow "Finches"

The snow came, and although not as much as in some parts, it nevertheless covered everything to a depth of about five inches.

I though that this picture of one of the two Pied Wagtails in the garden told the story, it looks almost lost in the white wilderness.

Here it is proving that sun-dials don't work under six inches of snow!

Pam made a good mixture of rice and fate, and some bits of meat, which I mixed with sunflower seeds. I uncovered two of the garden tables and put the food on this, so that it didn't disappear in the snow, or immediately get gobbled up by Herring Gulls. This Starling was quick to use the table, but some birds were reluctant to land on them. Blackbirds, despite the tables being 4 ft across seemed unable to share, and spent the time chasing each other off the table rather than getting on with the necessary.

I didn't see any Greenfinches or Goldfinches on the ground, although there were loads on the feeders, Chaffinches, on the other hand happily acted as the snow finches of the garden.

Late in the day a group of Wood Pigeons overcame their reluctance and finished of the feast.

St Margaret's Badgers in Eastern Europe?

I received this ring-bound publication, which includes a CD, from the Belgrade office of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). At first I couldn't think why, and then I remembered that I'd had a request, some nine months ago, for the use one of my Badger pictures.

The "field guide" is for use by the stake holders of nature conservation in the Balkans, including the border police and local communities. I don't suppose any of them will realise that the badger picture comes from the garden of England. The document is available here.

This picture of two of the youngsters that we nicknamed "the hooligans" appears on page 31.

There was plenty of Great-spotted Woodpecker activity in the garden today, but just one new garden bird for the year, a Jackdaw, made a belated appearance. During the day we had no snow although we knew it was on it's way.

And it arrived this evening. I took this form the back of the house, looking towards the pond, at 11.40 p.m. and it was cold with the door open. No sign of the Badger tonight, but it did find paw prints in the sprinkling we got last night.

There about two inches of snow, and it feels like very good snow ball type snow. I'll have to get Pam out for a snowball fight in the morning ( no chance!).

On a clear Day you can see for miles

I had a walk round Bockhill, St Margaret's, this afternoon, once it became apparent that the England team would struggle to take wickets in the 40 deg heat. A party of 12 Yellowhammer, at the edge of the football pitch, was a good start, but thereafter I struggled to find many birds.

When I got to the top of Old Stairs Hill I was surprised to find that I was able to see the wind farm in the Thames Estuary. This is about 11-12 Km out from North Foreland, and I reckon about 36-37 km from where I was standing. A few minutes later the sharp, clear light had gone a fine snow was falling, reducing visibility to a couple of Km.

I met "The all year swimmers", who had also noticed the wind farm for the first time. They confessed that they hadn't been swimming in the sea since November, I was shocked. I walked on and then found that Pete, their dog had chosen to follow me. Only trouble was I couldn't tell which was he was facing! I made my way to the "Empty wood" where I came face to face with a Little Owl, that disappeared before I could get a photo. A trudge round finally succeeded in getting my objective, when I flushed a Woodcock. Again views were only in flight and of the vanishing sort. A covey of 16 Grey Partridges were the first of the year for me. Although Blackbirds were numerous and there were a few Song Thrushes around (including one hammering a snail in Bert's Garden) there were no winter thrushes.

At the farm there's been some progress on the renovation of the cottage, although I guess it will be slow going if the weather remains like it is at the moment.

As I walked past the Gun Emplacement a kafuffle made me look up and I was just in time to see a cloud of feathers falling from what at first look like a small whirring helicopter carrying a large suspended load. It was in fact a female Peregrine carrying a rather fat Wood Pigeon. She struggled to fly, such was the bulk of the Pigeon, managing to slowly traverse the large field, followed by the male. I saw her touch down about 200 yards away but then lost her in the folds of the land. All this took place with my camera neatly snuggled in it's bag to save it from the snow, and it was f8 for a fortnight anyway. A memorable sight, recorded, for the time being at least, in my memory, but without a digital back up.

The only new bird added to the garden year list in the last two days was a Pied Wagtail, bring the total to a miserable 24. The Yellowhammers were only 300 yards away, so perhaps they'll pas a visit.

Taking Stock

I was wrong yesterday when I though that I'd seen the last of the Turkey carcass. Pam had kept the big bones to one side and I put them out this morning.

The herring Gull radar system was working better today, and very quickly we had seven Herring Gulls, quickly followed by six Black-headed Gulls around, what looked like bare bones to me. Herring Gulls will swallow some pretty large pieces, I assume these get ground up and some useful nutrition is obtained.

I had to go to Canterbury today, so I went on the quieter roads. Along the Ancient Highway I stopped to look at the old barn opposite the Chequers. As usual there were several Stock Doves on the roof. Further back the telephone line hosted a row of Corn Buntings.

I popped into the Observatory, where I met a couple in the car park carry a bundle of feathers. This turned out to be an exhausted Jack Snipe that they'd picked up on a village road. It was still able to move around, and Ian's advice was to place it by the pond and hope it would manage to feed there, un-molested. A few years ago, I tried to get a grounded Dunlin back to health, and it was a heart-breaking attempt. After days of constant attention, feeding it small worms from the compost heap, it seemed well on the way to recovery, only for it to relapse suddenly and die. I presume that either there was a deficiency in the diet, or there was a more fundamental ailment. Either way it was a failure. On the whole I think that it is better for the bird to take its chance in the wild.

At Grove Ferry there was a small covering of snow and all the open water was frozen over. I did hear a couple of Bearded Tits, pinging in the reeds, and a squeal of a Water Rail, but in the limited time I had there were few birds to be seem.

A few Cormorants few over head, presumably still able to used the river Stour for fishing in.

This Reed Bunting was feeding along the edge of the path, and seemed to be much more confiding that in milder conditions.

A young Blackbird was gobbling up Hawthorn berries and it was so intent on the job in hand that it almost allowed me to be within the focusing distance of my lens!

Similarly this Song Thrush, on the roadside by the Grove Ferry Inn, wasn't too worried about me as it sifted through the leaf litter. My 25 minute journey to Canterbury took about 2.5 hours, but it was better by the scenic route.

Last of the Christmas bird.

The Christmas turkey this year (or should it be last) was a big bird. It was also a delicious free range bird (thanks to Jim at Forstal Farm, West Langdon). The carcass, when the final meat is carved from it, then goes through an almost ritual boil up to produce the final feed, this time for the birds.

This year, unusually the Herring Gull on lookout duty seemed to me the event. This meant that once the mix had been spread around the garden the Crows were to of the list. At one time there were four Carrion Crows, filling their crops as fast as possible. One I recognised as a regular in the garden, as it has nice pale crescents round the primaries.

Magpies weren't far behind. I always love how the iridescence of their wings shines blue in the sunshine.

Even the Blackbirds and Starlings had a good prod amongst the bones, but there was very little left for them after the corvids had done their clean up duties.

It was cold last night, and this Blue Tit stood on the bird bath as if reminding me to get some water out there. I fact there is a little fountain nest to it that remains unfrozen unless it gets extremely cold. However this prompted me to do job that I've been putting off. The pump in the top pond needed cleaning out as the water was no longer flowing.

Did I mention it was cold. The water was xxxxxx cold.My fingers were absolutely numb when I'd finished. But it does bring it's rewards. Almost straight away a Wren was climbing about, showing that it could do the splits before dropping down for a drink.

Sparrows have been few and far between in the garden of late, but one thing they do seem to enjoy is a splash around in the pools in the waterfall. Almost as soon as it was running two appeared, as id they'd been waiting.

While we watched Starling coming down for their ablutions, Pam asked why they don't hypothermia in the freezing water. I gave the standard answer, that they have to preen to keep their feathers in good condition to stop them getting cold, as they act as their isolation. Well that's OK, but why don't they get hypothermia when they get wet doing it?

A few people have mentioned that Greenfinches have been in lower numbers this winter. I have to say that every available feeding station was occupied this afternoon, mainly be Greenfinches, so they don't seen to be in low numbers here. I have noticed that where you get Greenfinches and Goldfinches feeding next to each other there is almost always a clash, and despite being the smaller bird the Goldfinches are usually the first aggressors.

A Brandling in the garden.

Bramblings are not frequent visitors to the garden, but they have appeared in small numbers in most springs in the 10 years we've been here. Although they are regular on "vis-mig" sessions in the autumn they seem reluctant to pay more than fleeting visits to the garden at this season, and this year I had no records at all.

As I hadn't heard of many around in Kent this winter I was quite surprised to look out of the window and see this winter plumaged male sharing a feeder with a Greenfinch.

You may be wondering why it is perched on a 3" screw, not a conventional fitting on a feeder! Well everything one of those alien Squirrels brings down a feeder it seems to manage to break the perches, and this is the most successful quick repair I've found so far. I took these through the window, not wishing to disturb the bird, but it quickly disappeared and I though it had gone.

I reappeared a couple of hours later, and I did get a couple of clear views through the open window. Unfortunately it didn't seem to appreciate it's space being invaded by this approaching Chaffinch and exited left to the shrubbery.

I should have kept this one for the quiz, a flying Brambling, but as it didn't show the rump as it went, I though it would be a bit unfair.

Why the title Brandling? It seems that several creatures, young Salmon and young Trout for instance were call Brandlings because of their branded or brindled markings. In fact the names Bramling and Bramlin are recorded as colloquial forms of the fish names. Given the striking brindled plumage of our bird it is evident that it's name is a misnomer derived from an incorrect normalisation. Ray in 1678 put the name "Montifringilla major, the greater Brandling" over a drawing of the bird at the back of his book.

The garden list got to 23 for the year, with the addition of:Sparrowhawk, Song Thrush, Brambling, Wren (I missed it yesterday) and Black-headed Gull.

New Year, new Beginning

Happy new year to one and all! Many birders start new lists of various sorts on Jan 1st. The UK year list, the patch year list, the garden year list etc. Not all are list obsessed, but there are very few who don't keep at least one such list. I often start, but as it becomes apparent that the year will be yet another mediocre year my enthusiasm does wane. With the excuse that it is a new year I decided that I could get away with a few of the commoner birds in the garden today. I didn't venture far, coughing and wheezing was always likely to scare off anything out side, and the sudden busts of hard icy pellets at periodic intervals were enough to keep me in the environs of the Hidden House.

I did get out to the feeders yesterday, and I also put more seed down on the ground for the birds reluctant to use the hanging snack bars. It never snowed enough to properly cover the ground, but there was a thin coating for a while. Blackbirds continued to be quite numerous, although most of the berries on the Cotoneaster and Pyracanthus have gone, there are still some to be found by the diligent searcher.

Despite the cold the bath was popular with all species, the bunch of Starling that invaded in mid afternoon were the most vigorous. The Blackbird, above was rather more dignified in it's toilet.

Some of the male Greenfinches seemed to be looking extra specially colourful today, and although not as numerous as sometimes there were about twenty around the garden.

The majority of ground feeders were Chaffinches, and some are beginning to abraid into something like their breeding plumage.

THE little brown job, the Dunnock is always good to see in the garden. Numbers of Dunnocks had declined by over 50% over the years, however, recent BTO figures show that there has been a slow increase in their numbers. This one has actually learn to visit sunflower seed feeders, although it's visit are very short and mainly hovering, it does seem to succeed in getting a seed.

It was a while before a Robin visited, they really don't seem very numerous this year. This one was very bold, feeding just outside the window.

The garden list for the first day of the year was only 18 species.

Herring Gull
Feral Pigeon
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Jay
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch