Flyladyphotography By Wendy Cooper

  Well, we arrived home after our weekend away  with time to spare, so after unloading the car and a spot of lunch, I filled up the birdfeeders in the back garden and settled myself, very well wrapped up, to see who would visit.  It was a chilly and very overcast afternoon    There are two feeders with fatballs, one feeder with a mix of kibbled peanuts and sunflower hearts and the other two have, for the winter months, a 'high energy' seed mix - all the food goes quite quickly between the various visitors to the garden!   The first to appear was one of our regulars, announcing his arrival with a 'Tick Tick', a whirr of wings to another favourite perch and a pose to see if I was watching - it was one of the Robins .   We have three that regularly visit and appear to share the territory fairly amicably.  Two of them visit together and follow each other about the garden and I believe they may be a pair; another visits, most often alone and has ...

  Well it was that time of year again, only this year, I was away for the Big Garden Birdwatch weekend with friends... So in between our planned activities and catching up, I needed to squeeze in my 'Nature Fix and a spot of birding! Hubby and I arrived at Center Parcs at Woburn on the Friday, installed ourselves in our lodge and had a quiet evening.  Next morning, whilst having a cuppa ou on the patio bit, I could hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming loudly nearby, watched a number of rather fearless Grey Squirrels chasing around the spruce trees and chancing getting closer in case of treats and could also see amongst the lower branches of the spruces, Blue Tits and Goldcrests foraging for food.  At one point, there was also a Nuthatch scooting up and down the tree trunk and along the boughs.   We met up with our friends on the Saturday morning for a round of badminton (amazed myself, lasted the whole forty five minutes, not bad for someone who's p...

Well what a different winter to last year!   This time last year it was mild, frosts were few and far between and the Bluebells had already started to show green shoots in the local woods; since Christmas however, it has been in turn, foggy, freezing, misty and frosty with a smattering of snow (where I am and which I got all excited about, but it disappeared as fast as it arrived) with a few days here and there where it has been a little milder.  Pondering on the difference, I've been looking and wandering around my local patch and have been seeing who's about, watching behaviours and also watching the flora to see if it has got it's seasons sorted out this year.  Once the leaves finally turned and fell, the woodland floor is as I would expect to see it at this time of year, a carpet of leaves.  This January, there are no Bluebells or Primroses shooting, although here and there, wild mustard and nettles are a few inches high.  The majority of the leaf buds on th...