While the threat of this terrible virus still has us in its grip, most of us are, I believe, pretty-much confined to our homes, and our wildlife observations will largely be of what we can see from the windows of our houses.
Brian has kindly sent me some photos of winter sightings which beautifully capture the spirit of winter.
The first is of a Magpie sitting in what I think might be a Viburnum (we have a similar tree in flower still, which is a Viburnum)
The winter theme continues, with his shot of a SilverBirch covered in hoar frost.
Snowy Vigil
His last shot is not so wintery, but is, nevertheless, seasonal and depicts a Long-tailed Tit. These small birds are often in need of our help in winter.
Hoar Frost on Silver Birch
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| Long-tailed Tit |
A sustained cold spell is often extremely difficult for birds, and supplemental feeding in our gardens can be of great benefit to them. However, every bit as important to them is a supply of fresh water. This should be changed on a regular basis.
Even more important is to regularly check that the water has not frozen. We use plant-pot dishes for some of our supply for the birds. When these freeze, they can be tipped up-side-down, the ice knocked out in one piece, and then refilled with water. For our immovable 'bird baths' I take a kettle of boiling water to them, ensuring that the water is cold before I leave it.
Having Pied Wagtail in our garden is extremely rare - most years we don't see one - but during the recent freeze we were visited by one several times a day and I am sure that this is because we had the only non-frozen water in the area. As soon as the freeze was gone, the wagtail disappeared!
Pied Wagtail - the Pegler garden on 7th January 2021
Hopefully, the Covid vaccination programme will continue apace and we will all be able to meet up again in the not-too-distant future.
In the meantime, take great care and stay safe.
Richard Pegler
