Happy 2010

What an incredible evening it was last night. I went outside, it must have been about 11pm and it was magical. The snow was crunchy under my feet and the moon was almost full. It was so bright it was casting moon shadows everywhere. In the distance some people where letting go Chinese lanterns which shone like tiny orange fire flies high in the sky. This morning I woke up and the snow was still thick on the ground. I went out with the kettle to defrost the bird bath and filled up the feeding station, as much as I could. I've run out of the square suet blocks the birds love so much and the shop didn't have any left either but I'm hoping when I go shopping tomorrow I'll find some. The Woodpeckers were here today, they so wanted the suet from the coconut shell but that had run out too but eventually he settled for the fat balls. I spent a lot of time watching the Black Birds today and I could write a novel about their comings and goings right now. We now have 6 Black Birds in the garden. 2 adult males, 2 adult females and 2 juvenile males which look just like the adult male birds but without the bright yellow beaks. They all seem to be getting on very well except for one adult male which gets chased off. So I'm guessing all the others are from the same family. We also have another Crow which has joined the other two in our tree. I said yesterday that I was amazed how the birds were all getting along so well, well I'll take that back. Two of the Robins where back to normal today and chased each other non stop throughout the day. Still not seen any Squirrels and the Jays haven't been back in the garden since I've been back either. Although I did see one fly over head. The Herons are starting to come into the field to hunt now but I've not managed to get any nice photo's of them yet. Back onto the Black Birds, one of the adult males was desperately trying to display to one of the females. She didn't really look that interested and did her best to get away.I've been trying for ages to get a photo of the woodpeckers in flight but the weather has been so dull I've not had enough light to get quick enough film speeds for a good photo. Today was no exception but I did get one slightly blurry shot of him flying away so I thought I would include it anyway.