Wednesday 12 December 2012

Winter in the woods

At last! The ground is frozen rock hard, and I can drive in and out with the trailer full of logs without making everything muddy... It also looks great, and we've got the bird feeder filled up again, so lots of photo opportunities:

DSC_5336 Marsh Tit in flight

In the wayleave, the sun doesn't reach much of the ground during December and January, so the frost builds up during cold spells:
DSC_5350 Frosty woodland

DSC_5342 Frosted grass

Some nice views looking in through our entrance from the wayleave too:
DSC_5353 Frosty woodland

DSC_5348 Frosty woodland

Anyway, back to the bird photos. We keep a bird feeder topped up during the cold weather. I don't know how much difference it really makes in the long run, but it's nice to see which birds are around and get a few pictures. Interestingly, there have only been two types of birds coming to the feeder so far: Robins and Marsh Tits. The Robins tend to pick up seeds from the ground rather than using the feeder itself:
DSC_5283 Robin

Though this of course means they need to keep an eye out for danger, which I guess is why this one is trying to make itself as tall as it can:
DSC_5271 Robin

The Marsh Tits are easier to photograph than the Robins, as they sit in the young coppice nearby for a bit before coming to the feeder:
DSC_5184 Marsh Tit

DSC_5257 Marsh Tit coming in to land

DSC_5245 Marsh Tit

I managed to get a few of them in flight too, though this required sitting still a short distance away for quite a while, and I got pretty cold!
DSC_5330 Marsh Tit in flight

DSC_5297 Marsh Tit in flight

What's odd is that there are no Blue Tits or Great Tits so far this winter, I'm not sure why...

Mike

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plenty of Blue Tits and even Long tailed tits in mid-Cheshire.

Mike Pepler said...

And elsewhere near here too, just not in the woods so far this winter, which is odd...