8th March 2018 and it's snow joke.

A real dump of snow greeted me first thing this morning and it continued to snow for a good few hours. Some snow had been forecast but I had expected it to be wet sleety stuff and soon turn to rain but this was the real deal and covered everything in a good 3 to 4 inches of the white stuff before it finally stopped.

The view from the front door.

The view towards Orrell Water Park.

The snow clearly had an impact on the birds and the garden feeders were busier than they had been during the recent severe cold spell. We didn't get much snow then and many species, especially seed eaters, still had access to natural food sources and didn't seem pushed for food despite the very cold temperatures. This morning was a different story with the thick covering of snow limiting their feeding options and causing more birds to come to the feeders. 

Birds were queuing up to use the feeders and I have quite a few dotted around the garden.

The birds gather in the trees across the road from the garden before dropping down to feed.

Another group on its way in.

You could imagine this Goldfinch thinking 'Where did this lot come from'.

and this one was really shaking its head.

Some Goldfinches were clearly in pairs.

and another pair.

This male Chaffinch is in one of those 'what are you looking at' poses.

Looking at its tail shape this female Chaffinch is almost certainly an adult.

Female Chaffinch. I only included this photo because of the lump of snow on her head. The snow really did come down thick and fast.

It was nice to see a few more Greenfinches at the feeders but they are nowhere near as numerous as they used to be in the 'good old days', when Greenfinches were ten a penny.

Male Siskin

I was able to read part of the ring number on this female Siskin and it is not one that I have ringed. It will be really frustrating if I don't manage to catch her and establish where she has come from.

Three Pied Wagtails fed on the lawn below the feeders including this fine male. This bird has been a regular in the garden for much of this winter.

It won't be long before my Starling RAS starts. This adult male (A57) was originally ringed as a juvenile in June 2012.

Female Starling

Male Blackbird

Female Blackbird

Judging by the size of of its bib this Coal Tit is a male.

Woodpigeons haven't visited the garden much recently as they have been spending a lot of time feeding in a nearby field of oil seed rape.

The fat cakes have certainly helped this Goldcrest survive this winter.

Winter may not have released its grip just yet but give it another week and I should be writing posts about returning Chiffchaffs and other spring migrants. 

Time March's On

Last Friday there was a good dump of snow but I didn't get round to posting any pictures so here are a few as a reminder of what it was like only a week ago.

The garden on Friday 4th March

This months ringing effort has largely been directed at the Siskins in the garden with a few short sessions resulting in another 35 being ringed. This has brought the number ringed over the past couple of months to 118 which is the second highest total for the garden and there is still time to catch a few more yet.

Siskins gathered in the trees across the road from the garden on 04/02/16. There are about 60 Siskins in this photo along with one or two Goldfinches. There were others feeding in the garden at the same time.

The number of Siskins peaked in last Friday's snow when up to 70 visited the feeders throughout the day. Since then numbers have dropped steadily and there were only around 25 or so today. Settled conditions are forecast for the next week so numbers are likely to drop further as more head off for the breeding grounds.

This morning I decided to have a look round the site at Billinge. I had to scrape a bit of frost off the car but the sun soon warmed things up and it even tempted a few bees out as the morning wore on. I had hoped there would be a few Meadow Pipits on the move and the outside chance of an early Wheatear but there was no visible migration to speak of and definitely no Wheatears. However, I did have an unexpected find in the form of 19 Lesser Redpolls and managed to catch 9 of them. Three of the Redpolls were already ringed with 2 being retraps that were ringed at the site last November and the other being a control (a bird ringed elsewhere). It is quite likely that this small flock has wintered in the area as it is still a bit early for Redpolls to be on the move.

Control Lesser Redpoll photographed in this morning's glorious sunshine.

A bit of the white stuff

The day started with some very heavy snow showers making for some wintry scenes and tricky driving conditions. It was rather wet snow and although it covered the ground it didn't accumulate to any depth. It certainly wasn't weather for venturing out other than a quick dash to try and capture an image to show the intensity of the snow fall.

The snow showers didn't last long but were quite heavy at times.

The garden was busy with birds as would be expected in such conditions. A Grey Wagtail was on the snow covered lawn looking for crumbs of food that had dropped from the feeders. Around 30 Goldfinches, 8 Chaffinches and 5 Greenfinches were tucking into nyger seed and sunflower hearts. Up to 8 Blackbirds and 3 Song Thrush alternated between fat cakes, fat balls, apples, and sunflower hearts. A few Robins and Dunnocks chased each other around in between bouts of feeding. The usual Blue, Great and Coal Tits also came and went from time to time as did 8 Long-tailed Tits. Lastly a few Collared Doves, Woodpigeons, Starlings and House Sparrows also got their fill as did the regular male Blackcap.

The snow showers eased off as the morning went on so I went for a walk around the park just across the road from home. I hadn't gone far when I came across a Cormorant that was lying on one of the fishing pegs. It was unusually approachable so I thought it may be injured or snagged on fishing line but as I got closer it stood up and seemed to be fine. I backed off a bit when it looked like it was going to enter the water and it quickly settled back down again. Although it looked in good condition there could have been something wrong with it as it is very unusual for a Cormorant to allow such a close approach.

This Cormorant allowed me to get within 7 metres of it before it even bothered to stand up. I will look for it again over the next few days to try and find out if there is something wrong with it or if it is just unusually confiding.

After leaving the Cormorant I wandered up to the reserve area where a Water Rail has been showing quite well. I soon came across it but a frequent procession of passers-by ensured it didn't come out into the open. I hung around for a while but every time it looked like it would show well more people and dog walkers would pass by so I decided to leave it for another day. It has had a lot of optics pointed at it recently so its not surprising that it has become a bit weary of all the attention.

This record shot of the Water Rail was the best I could do in the circumstances.

I ended my walk by checking out the Black-headed Gulls by the car park. The German ringed bird was the only ringed gull present and is now starting to get its black head. In previous winters this bird has not been recorded after 7th February so it will be interesting to see if this year is any different.

German ringed Black-headed Gull

There have been very few Coots coming out by the car park this winter and I hadn't seen any ringed birds amongst them until today. I took a few photos of this ringed Coot to get the ring number which I soon recognised as belonging to a bird that was ringed near Penarth in south Wales back in December 2010. I recorded this bird several times last January and it probably bred at the park that summer. You can see a recovery map and read about some of the earlier sightings here.

This Coot was ringed at Comeston Lakes near Penarth, not far from Cardiff, during the very cold winter of  2010/11.

Waxwing lyrical part 20 - it's snow joke this weather

The blizzards arrived overnight as forecast and have yet to stop. Last night I thought I was mad when I lost the feeling in my fingers putting out apples in sub zero temperatures made worse by a significant windchill. Tonight I confirmed that the Waxwing madness had really taken hold when I was up the ladder putting out apples in horizontal snow. There was no messing around though and 40 apples were put out in record time. At least I am off work tomorrow so I can top them up during the day if necessary.

Only 37 arrived first thing this morning but they were very flighty with all the branches whipping about in the very strong wind. Only 12 stayed to feed before I went to work but more came back later and at least 25 were present for most of the afternoon. I delayed going into work because of the snow and this allowed me to get a few photographs.

This is the Estonian ringed bird caught on 27th Feb but was seen a few
days before so has been around for about a month now.

On my way to work I noticed a group of about 20 Waxwings near a tree cotoneaster I had been keeping an eye on. I had been eyeing up these berries for some guerrilla pruning but the cotoneaster is not very big and is in the middle of a pub car park by a busy main road; a bit too public even for me. On my way home tonight it appeared to have been completely stripped of berries although it was a check at more than 30 mph in a blizzard.

Bird feeding hasn't been confined to the Waxwings. I have also topped up the feeders at one of my baited sites today and it was seriously cold in the wind. I don't know when the weather will calm down to allow any ringing but that is not always the point.

And it snowed and snowed

More snow arrived overnight as it did for large parts of the country and it continued on and off for much of the day. I took the day off work rather than travel although I still ended up doing some work to stay on top of my emails. What did we do before emails? I think it was something called talking.

Anyway the garden provided plenty of distraction as 5 Siskins joined the Goldfinches and other garden regulars. A male Blackcap also put in a few appearances and is at least the fourth Blackcap seen in the garden so far this winter. I will let the pictures speak for themselves from here but all were taken in the garden today.
 

The scene that greeted me this morning.

male Siskin (Carduelis spinus). All 5 Siskins visiting the garden today were males.



male Siskin (Carduelis spinus).

male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)




Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus)

adult female Blackbird (Turdus merula). There is quite a variation in the plumages of female Blackbirds with this being one of the more well marked birds.



adult female Blackbird (Turdus merula).

adult male Blackbird (Turdus merula)