Winter Returns

After last week’s heatwave it is typical that Winter should return with a vengeance and one inch of snow covered the garden on the fourth. As a result of the harsh weather we had a superb male Brambling visiting the garden on that day and the following day a female Brambling. (photo next week). It was eight years and a day since we last had a Brambling in the garden and it was totally unexpected in a Winter that has had very few Brambling in the country. In addition to the Bramblings we had two Redpolls, fourteen Goldfinches, six Bullfinches and possibly up to a dozen different Reed Buntings that are all coming directly from the golf course. A trip out into the hills on the fifth had roads just passable and massive drifts of snow. One of the Woodcock sites was snow covered and it was somewhat weird to see my first Wheatear on the snow. Just as strange was watching a male Ring Ouzel gathering nesting material around drifts of snow and then flying back to its traditional cliff that was thankfully snow free.