Sooooo Excited

I have some fantastic news, can't wait to tell you. I've just heard from Lancaster University where they measure levels of geomagnetic activity, and guess what, there were higher than normal levels in the early hours of Friday morning. Confirming that those mysterious lights I saw on Friday morning could very well be the Northern Lights. How incredible is that. It's been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to see them, so I was scared to say it was definitely was as I wanted it to be so much. But now its official and I am so incredibly excited. Oh and guess what, the levels are up again tonight, so guess what I'll be doing this evening!
OK back to the wildlife and I have some more exciting news. Gosh there's so many happy things happening today I could burst. I woke up this morning to find another new visitor to the garden and guess what, I even managed to get a photo. It was a Fieldfare. It's another bird which is usually seen in flocks, which has appeared in my garden all alone. Wonder why I'm attracting all the single lonely ones? I don't mind if it keeps bringing all these wonderful birds to my garden. I wonder if i was the cold on his feet which made him stand on one leg and keep swapping or was he just doing the what birds do when they sleep? Today wasn't quite so good for birds in flight photo's but I did manage a couple of action shots which I liked. Well this is one very happy bunny signing off. x x

What a night

Weren't the stars amazing last night? Well at 3am I happened to wake up and thought I would just have a peek out of the window to admire the starry sky. Much to my amazement I was treated to something even more spectacular. Coming from behind the mountain in the northern sky there was the most amazing light show. They lights were constantly moving in waves across the corner of the sky. I think, but not sure, I may have seen the Northern Lights. It is highly unusual this far down the country but it was a very clear and calm night so you never know. I did take loads of photographs but thought I better just put two on here as they are all identical except for an inch in the top right corner.

When I woke up after not much sleep I had another amazing time. The light was just right with the snow to capture some birds in flight shots. These are my favourite to take but conditions do have to be right. This Robin photograph is probably one of my favourite Robin action shots I've ever taken.and in this one the Chaffinch is about to land next to the little Blue Tit and share the suet coconut shell. The Coal Tit enjoyed the suet too. This Robin was enjoying the sunshine as he sat on his branch surveying the garden. Its going to be hard for me to fall asleep tonight. I'll be dying to get up and look out the window again just in case I see the spectacular lights again. Funny thing is, I'm flying all the way to Shetland in a few days especially to see the Northern Lights which has always been a lifetime dream for me.

Minus 9 and still falling

It was already minus 9 at 7pm this evening, goodness knows how cold it will get later. No wonder the snow isn't going anywhere. The Black Bird numbers are still increasing. The females for the ten males that appeared the other day seem to have turned up. I've no idea how many there are now. But if you ever saw the film 'The Birds' you could be scared. Everywhere you look, they are there in the trees. This is the track behind the garden. One of the tree's at the top of the garden is leaning so much. Its been like that for a long time but the snow makes it look a lot worse.

A Solitary Redwing

We had another new visitor in the garden today, a Redwing. I thought I had seen him yesterday but as he was on his own I thought it couldn't be. But today I got great view of him as he stood only feet from my window. I didn't manage to get a photo though, which I am very frustrated about. The female Black Bird above was having a hard time trying to perch on the washing line. Looks like she was trying her hand at Tightrope walking. My friend Elizabeth loves birds in action shots so this one is for her. The woodpeckers looked lovely as they hung on the snow covered branches. The sheep where finding it hard to reach the grass below to snow, I hope the farmer has been with extra food for them. I had a walk in the garden today and noticed the wildlife tracks in the snow. It reminded me of a fantastic book I had as a child which had pages of snow tracks to help learn what animal made what. I thought I would do something similar and grabbed my camera. In the book they had Deer, Rabbits and Stoats. I couldn't find tracks quite so exciting and ended up with......

A Sheep A Cat and finally A Jay. The Black Birds were still struggling in the deep snow. To help I have been putting lots of food under the garden table and the bench which is working as the other food gets completely covered up within half an hour by the falling snow. The only problem with the food under cover is it tends to get taken by one Male Black Bird who then refuses to let any other birds apart from his Mrs anywhere near. The Stray cat is back, he had been missing for 2 days but turned up at 7.30am yesterday morning crying his heart out at the front door. We've now named him 'cheeky'. Before his disappearence he had moved in with us and appeared at tea time each day and came in to have some dinner and spend the night. Then at 7.30am he goes again and spends all day in the garden. He is ever so well camoflaged for this weather as I can barely make him out in this photo. He hasn't caught any birds that I have seen, which I am so happy about. Finally, isn't it amazing how much snow can form on such long thin things like this bramble.

The Cool Garden

I must have a cool garden as word has got out that its the 'in place' to hang out. The feeder this morning was like Piccadilly circus for small birds. I had 12 Black Birds here today, never seen so many. Ten Males and two females. There were so many birds it wasn't surprising there were a few squabbles. The snow has been falling heavily for most of the day. There was a good 6 inches of snow when I woke this morning. I kept filling the feeder and defrosting the drinking water, which soon froze over again. I was worried I was running out of food for the ground feeding birds so I put some of the cats old food out and it was soon devoured. The Black Birds, Dunnocks and Robins ate it all. As the snow got deeper the heavier birds were struggling and ended up virtually swimming through, well on top of the snow, leaving very unusual patterns in the snow. The smaller birds didn't sink quite as much so had a much easier time. They actually made snow holes in the snow which went all the way down to the grass below. Even the hanging feeders were filling up with snow as this woodpecker was finding out. This photo of the bench was taken mid afternoon and shows how deep the snow was then. Oh news, the Jays are back. Three of them where here today and were a joy to watch, picking through the monkey nuts.

Two New Visitors

I've been so excited today. We've had two new visitors to the garden. First we had this little Long Tailed Tit. Its so unusual to see them on their own as they are usually in small but quite noisy flocks. This little fella was getting such a hard time. He kept trying to feed off the fat balls but the Blue Tits were not having any of it. He didn't stay long and I can't really blame him but shortly after we had a visit from our second new bird. It was a very large Mistle Thrush. Initially I thought it was a very big fluffed up female black bird but as it got closer the spotted chest was unmistakable. I desperately tried to take a photo but my camera was on auto-focus and just refused to focus correctly. So frustrating. Again it didn't stay long but who knows they both may come back tomorrow. This afternoon I ventured away from the garden, not too far only about a mile and this is the view that awaited me. Isn't it just stunning. I don't think I've ever seen Snowdon quite so white before. When I got home I noticed the ice crystals forming intricate patterns on the window outside. Oh the sun actually shone today too, which made taking photographs much more fun.

The Slow Melt

It felt like another freezing day here although it must have warmed up a bit as some of the snow has definitely melted in the garden. There's still enough about though to take some Greeting Card style photographs of the Robins. There is something special about a Robin in the snow, I reckon. These two Blue Tits where squabbling over a tiny bit of fat ball which had fell from the holder. All 6 Black Birds where here again all day. It doesn't seem 5 minutes since I was writing about how I'd not seen any for so many months and worrying the Sparrow Hawk had caught them all. I actually saw one of them eating peanuts today, no I've never seen that before. The melting snow has uncovered lots of mole hills in the field above the garden. I'm guessing they must have been made just before the snow fell, whilst I was away, as the ground is frozen solid at the moment and surely a Mole wouldn't want to try and dig through that. It must be hard for the small birds to find food at this time of year but in my garden I think the weather helps the smaller birds find the seeds as they just lay on top of the snow for them to pick up. They don't seem to mind if they eat off the ground or the feeder and usually fly from one to the other without preference. Still no sign of the Squirrels or Jays.

The snow starting to melt

It's still all white

Nuthatch

The snow started to melt today but only a little. We still had a few snow flurries and now the temperatures dropped again its well below freezing outside tonight. I've been out most of the day today but this morning I did catch a glimpse of this little Blue Tit enjoying part of an apple I'd put out yesterday.Blue Tit

All the Black Birds where about again too. Here's one of the adult males with one of the juveniles.

Black Birds

I wonder when will the juvenile get the bright yellow beak like the adult male?

Juvenile Black Bird