Snow on snow . . .

I have not ventured out beyond my patio door, but here are some of the avian visitors who came to our garden today. I gather there are Redwings and Fieldfare in the vicinity, but I have yet to see any this year. As for the snow, well, it is probably the most we have had since we moved in to our current house about nine years ago!

 

Home Patch: Enter a Sparrowhawk!

I looked out at the snow yesterday morning ... and there before my eyes was this male Sparrowhawk.

The bird sensed it was being watched, and began to turn its head ...

... in my direction.

It was my best Sparrowhawk sighting to date ...

... despite the fact that I was looking (and taking photos) through double-glazing.

I have seen a Sparrowhawk in this garden before, but only on a couple of occasions.

We have had hungry Robins, Blue tits, Great tits and Goldfinches in the garden recently ...

... and with such a large predator about, I feared for their safety.

Here is one of the tiny Blue tits ...

... keeping a wary eye out for trouble.

Then today, David took this photo of a Long-tailed tit feeding from our coconut fatball.

The Blackbird was hopping about in the snow, and so far the small birds seem to be surviving.

I wonder whether you feel protective towards your small birds? I love the concept of 'wild', but find I have to brace myself when it comes to Tennyson's phrase, 'Nature red in tooth and claw'.

I looked up Tennyson's poem, In Memoriam A. H. H., 1850 (Canto 56) ... and only then remembered with a shudder that 'Nature' in this particular poem is not the personification of a wild creature in our landscape such as the Sparrowhawk: no, it actually refers to us as a race of human beings. 

So what set me thinking? Well, two things, triggered by the arrival of the Sparrowhawk in my home patch. The first was a post on fellow poet, Juliet Wilson's Crafty Green Poet blog, about her sighting of a fox and a drove of rabbits in the snow (I was willing the fox to feed, but not on the rabbits!). The second was a memory of my time in Philadelphia a year ago last January, when I discovered that there was a version of The Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks (1780 - 1849) in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Hicks, apparently, painted 61 versions of the scene, so don't be surprised if this is not the version you know! 

• On the subject of foxes, you might be interested in this. 

Wildlife Counts: Big Garden Birdwatch 2013

Greenfinch, one of the most colourful stars of the show ...

I wonder whether those of you who live in the UK have undertaken your 2013 RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch yet. The survey, which lasts an hour, can be undertaken at any time over this weekend.

I sat down by the window in our home this morning, and was pleased that despite the snow, most of the usual suspects showed up. Sadly there was no sign of the Blackbird or Wren, although I have subsequently seen the Blackbird. I also saw a single Starling, but since it flew on through without landing, it could not be counted. We have not yet been in this house for a year, so it was a particularly interesting survey for me.

We actually saw quite a few more birds than is indicated by the results sheet below. For this survey, you can, of course. log every bird you see if you choose to do so; but for RSPB purposes, you only submit the largest sighting at one time of a given species. This means that although I saw six Blue tits (well, two then two, then one, then one), I can only log one of the two-bird sightings (i.e. just the first pair and not the second - and not the single Blue tits), in case the other birds were actually not different ones at all.

My list below is what was submitted to the RSPB.

My actual list ran as follows ...

Blue tit ............ 2 then 2 then 1 then 1
Chaffinch ......... 1 then 1
Goldfinch ......... 3
Great tit ........... 1
Greenfinch ....... 1
Magpie ............ 1
Robin .............. 1
Song thrush...... 1
Wood pigeon ... 1 then 1 then 2 then 2 then 5

We spent the afternoon enjoying the area around Flatford Mill, the scene of many of iconic landscape paintings by John Constable. The RSPB has a small wildlife garden there (photo at end end of this earlier post here), the the folk in charge had set up telescopes and binoculars for the day of the Birdwatch. There was still a fair bit of ice around, but it was wonderful to see our first Snowdrop of 2013.

I shall probably do a separate post about our Flatford walk, since the snow scenes were so idyllic ... but I thought I would end this post with the bird we saw on our drive out of the village on our way home. It is, of course, a Barn Owl. My photos are just record shots as we were in the car at the time, and at some distance from the bird. However, we were able to stop safely and I managed to click the camera a couple of times.   

Barn Owl

Shortly after we arrived home, I noticed the moon over the snow ...

The Tree Year (3): More Winter Visitors at the Larch

Welcome to my third post for The Tree Year 

about the Larch I am watching. 

This tree is in Carmarthenshire, South Wales, UK.

This is the Larch. It is still early in the season, but there are small signs of new growth.

Our 'friend', the Great Spotted Woodpecker, put in another appearance ...

This one is a male (with red mark on back of neck - not visible here): I wonder if we will see a female one day ...

We were delighted to spot Long-tailed tits here for the first time this year.

Two Long-tailed tits and a Blue tit.

Blue tits - and a female Siskin (upside down).

Mr and Mrs Chaffinch arrived.

Note the fresh growth on the larch branch. I think this a second female Chaffinch ...

... and another male Chaffinch.

For those who may not know, the Larch is a deciduous conifer from the Pinaceae family. We usually think of conifers as evergreen, but this species loses its needle-like leaves each autumn. The tiny cones ripen approximately 8 months after pollination. There are Eurasian and North American species. Larch wood is waterproof and hard-wearing - and used in the boating industry. It is also used for the building of houses in Central Europe. Scottish cabers, used in the sport of 'Tossing the Caber', are made from Larch.

Is this a Warbler, perhaps a female Willow Warbler?

The 'usual suspects', the Starlings, arrived on cue.

The male Blackbird preferred rustling around below the tree.

A hungry Chaffinch,

a cute Blue Tit ...

... and a striped Great Tit enjoy the feast.

Share and share alike!

Mr and Mrs Greenfinch breeze in.

Still room for a little one!

I'm not sure about the identity of the bird on the right. Any ideas, please?

The tiny Treecreeper scuttled away up the trunk ...

... until we could hardly see him! Such is the power of camouflage.

Of all the birds listed, the Starling is the only one to have RED conservation status. I know there has been a huge decline in this species, but, strangely, these are the birds we most often see at home in the Swansea area of Wales, UK. There was no sign on this occasion of the Grey Squirrel or of the Nuthatch. We saw a flock of geese in the vicinity: I must check my husband's photos for these. The fresh green growth of new Larch should be more in evidence on our next visit. I wonder what other changes we will observe then!


Previous TTY Posts

• TTY Post 1: Introducing the Larch - January 2011
• TTY Post 2: Winter Visitors - January 2011 
• The Tree Year

• You can listen to a soundtrack of a Downy Woodpecker if you follow this link to TTY participant, Mike, at the Slugyard.