Sunday, January 31, 2016

winter update

Do not expect the Rubythroat here, I refuse to twitch the holy grail in an ordinary garden setting:-) It is winter so birding is slow, and weather is hard. The daily provided food attracts a lot of birds in my front garden; up to 70 House Sparrows, 15 Ringed Dove, both 10 Great and Blue Tits, 6 Blackbirds and a few Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Robin.

see below for the origin of those branches:-)
The flock of Long-tailed Tits is still roaming through the village but the flock size has decreased significantly. Maybe the Sparrowhawks took some, at least 2 visit the area daily. This weekend I had the chance to photograph one of them.
in the back garden
only few meters distance in the front garden
At the beginning of the year there were some exceptional black ice-conditions in the North. It rained ice for days and it was even possible to do ice-skating on the road! The ice put so much weight on the trees that the 3 biggest of the village fell down, simultaniously, with a loud bang!
view from my window, with a length of 30 meters this tree crashed 3 gardens



same tree, different view
this one fell in opposite direction, crashing 2 gardens
view from the car's window, it took more than an hour to get the frozen doors open




More about the life-cycle of wood later:-)