UKC

Just now. Fieldfare stonechat heron. Stunning morning. 

In reply to Bottom Clinger: From another angle. I didn't see much in the way of wildlife but as you say, a stunning morning. Tempted to get the skis out.

In reply to Bottom Clinger:

Saw a robin, close up less than 1m away. And a wren. Curiously, the birds seem to be avoiding the feeders, but bread goes quickly.

In reply to Bottom Clinger:Lovely views yesterday from The Heron at Malpas, near Truro, of actual herons standing in the water edges on the other side, waiting for lunch to come by, I guess.

In reply to Bottom Clinger:

The low level ice formation around here is fantastic, the nights are building masses of ice on Thursday’s snowfall so the trees are now all white with ice crystals. Shades of November 10/11.

In reply to dread-i:

My feeders are not being used surprisingly. However, with the cold weather I have been putting seed/food out daily at ground level to help the ground feeding birds who often rely on the wastage of those on the feeders.

That has been very popular with Dunnocks, Robins, blackbirds even House sparrows preferring the ground these days, and inevitably also the pigeons and magpies.

Interestingly though for whatever reason, there seemed to be a strange hierarchy today. Blackbird was ruling for a while, keeping both smaller and larger birds away. It was amusing to see a pigeon waiting it’s turn at a distance from a blackbird and a magpie even keeping it’s distance from the pigeon. Not seen that behaviour before, as pigeons and magpies don’t normally wait their turn.

In reply to Bottom Clinger:

I enjoyed two misty walks along the Eden below Carlisle over the weekend. Highlights were the cormorant and the dabchick, but there were fieldfare, a variety of tits and more wrens than I have seen in a good while.

In reply to JCurrie:

I enjoyed two walks in the Lakes this weekend. Today I saw very little apart from a couple of ravens and several happy dogs in the snowy conditions, but on Friday I was very happy to identify a party of Crossbills, been years since I've seen any. That at least compensated for the PITA to make progress across forestry commission land when your summit is off path.

In reply to dread-i:

My feeders are back in heavy use. Had a queue on the fence yesterday which normally only happens during breeding season.

In reply to Bottom Clinger:

Walked along the canal at Glasson Dock yesterday. The basin was half frozen and most of the canal heading towards the Galgate junction was fully iced. I saw four herons in a few yards, normally only see the odd one. They let me get much closer as well before flapping off. On a bench I was hustled by a pair of robins for the cheese from my sandwich. One was doing quite a good hover taking from my hand. They really are not backwards in coming forward.

In reply to Lankyman:

Yesterday, about a third of Thirlmere looked to have a frozen surface. Wouldn't surprise me if it managed to totally freeze over if temps stay down for long enough.

In reply to Michael Hood:

Thirlmere: Don’t think I’ve ever seen it totally frozen. It’s very deep in parts - I’ve fished it and used a fish finder to check for depth and features about 150 ft deep - and the deeper they are the less likely to freeze. There are some quite big shallow areas, mainly southern bit and some bays on the west side. There is some decent fish in it though, but fluctuation water levels means not much food source and hence low fish biomass. 

In reply to Bottom Clinger:

Southern end looked less frozen than northern end. Part of Rydal water was also freezing over but Grasmere looked ice free as I drove past keeping my eyes on the road.

In reply to Michael Hood:

Nice. I haven't seen Crossbills for 40 years, since Cumbernauld destroyed the local environment. 

In reply to Michael Hood:

Northerly breeze would keep a chop on the southern end, reducing frost. 

Me and one of my brothers fished Grasmere one Baltic day. We could hardly row the boat out of the bay at the top end - smashing the oars through the ice and half pulling the boat over the ice. It stayed sub zero and at the end of the day the ice was much thicker and we couldn’t get back. Where the river comes in we managed to lob an anchor over the ice and onto the shore and pulled the boat over the ice . This was after damaging the anchor (home made welded steel and snapped a prong off).  We carried and drag the boat through the fields and over fences and walls back to the boat landing. Bit of an epic. I caught one pike, brother had nowt. 

In reply to Bottom Clinger:

We've had the first visit to the feeders by our local great spotted woodpecker. add in coal, blue, great tits, chaffinch, goldfinch, sparrows loads of other small species, corvids and blackbirds and it's looking really busy.  Not sure how much longer it'll last as Scottish forestry are currently felling all the woods around us (and I mean really close like 20 yards from our boundaries.  I'd normally hear a couple of owls at night when I'm out in my observatory but they seem to have buggered off.