Winter daydreams

Goldfinch

It's been a busy couple of days, even before the snow and ice came. Once that arrived I decided I wasn't going to try and slip in any birdwatching as I was more likely to slip into a supine position. I'm getting too old for that. I'm not a fan of English snow, it's nothing like the Christmas card pictures. Instead we have a day or so of thin, crisp snow becoming compacted ice that gets covered in an icy film. The side roads are the worst, they become sheets of black ice. It was a bit galling to find that when I popped over to check on my dad I was walking more freely on this rubbish with a stick than I have been walking unaided on perfectly good surfaces lately. I told friends last week that this is likely to be my last Winter walking without a stick, I wasn't asking for such quick confirmation. 

Goldfinch

The spadgers have been hammering the bird feeders, luckily I got a big load of bird food in the other day. They've had some competition from a flock of goldfinches that have become regulars as well as the usual titmice. They'll all be notably absent when the Big Garden Birdwatch comes along. I got the impression that one of the great tits had been caught by a female sparrowhawk that was barging round the garden yesterday afternoon but they were both in today. Perhaps the Pyracantha bush growing into the gooseberries (or vice versa) provided an escape route.

Blackbird

The local collared doves are paired up, the males singing at dawn and bashing lumps out of each other on rooftops. The robins and blackbirds are paired up, too, and every other chimneypot down our road has its pair of jackdaws. The cycle of life goes on.

Robin