Snow

Thursday, late p.m.

Sunday, late p.m.

So I took the winter tyres off my car. The plan was to go for the roost at Scaling but the snow began falling just before 5 and by the time I wanted to go the road was looking a bit flaky. Louise isn't too keen to lend me her car (still shod in its winter boots) after the "parking on the front in a storm and high tide at Sandsend" incident - apparently occupants required wellies to ride within the vehicle the next morning.

Just after the snow started to really come down 40+ Fielfdares were espied (from the cosy inside) heading west. Other garden birds today included Tree Sparrow, the continuing to feast on peanuts Siskins, Marsh Tit and a rather smart Sparrowhawk on a moorside wall (possibly the individual that made such a dashing pass at the bird feeders yesterday p.m. Of special interest yesterday were the Long-tailed Tits, barely seen all winter they are busily collecting nesting material from the garden.

Other items of interest on Friday were both 7-spot and 2-spot ladybirds found in the garden.

The pond continues to hold water, but enlargement plans are on hold during the inclement weather and anyway I'm distracted at the moment by novel reading and a rich source of legal, free music on the web which I'm catching up on.

Mallorcan photos will be posted shortly. I'm planning a resume of Yellow-legged Gull id which I have continued to find confusing and difficult. My target species this year, I took hundreds of photos and visited two colonies. The pix have been whittled down, and I think I've got my head around this now - this is for my own benefit but I will post the outcome on a linked web page for anyone who is vaguely interested.