Devon Life

All my chums have blogged about snow, so here am I late to the party!

I made heroic efforts this morning before breakfast to struggle though 2-3cms of snow, and to take some pictures as I went. It was nicely sunny just after sunrise, and I was pleased with this one of my favourite oak tree - a magnificent specimen growing in a sunken lane just down the hill from my house.

(This is my first experiment with "HDR" - combining two exposures so you don't get white highlights and black shadows.)

After a very cold spell and then rain and wind, I was fortunate to have a cool, cloudy but dry morning to spend my hour counting garden birds.

Blackbirds: 4
Robins: 3
Coal tits: 1
Blue tits: 3
Great tits: 2
Greenfinches: 2
Dunnocks: 3
Magpies: 1
Pheasants: 5
Nuthatches: 1
Spotted woodpeckers: 1
Goldfinches: 1

I could hear chaffinches "pinking" to each other, but no matter how carefully I scanned the trees, couldn't see them. (And I was glad there were pheasants - a big shoot down the valley yesterday had unnerved them and they looked very wary.)

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

Results of this year's count will be published on the web site in March. My last year's results are here - some interesting, but not significant, differences. Which brings me onto my related project for this year (as hinted to you, EllieGant!) I spend a few minutes each morning after I've put food out seeing what comes into the garden, and thought just how random my sightings are. So, for the Twelve Days of Christmas, I took 5-10 minutes each morning and wrote down what I saw - as I thought it would be interesting to see how varied the visitors were. I shall be boring you with post-dated blog entries for each day over the next few days! Starting here with Christmas Day.

It has been perishing cold for the last week, and going outside the back door is like being an extra in a low-budget remake of The Birds.

All along the rooftops and in the trees are a softly chirping gang of hopeful blackbirds, waiting for me to come out armed with my twice-daily ration of corn, porridge oats and sultanas to stoke their reptilian heat. Spooky....