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.
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| 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.
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| in the back garden |
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| 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!
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| view from my window, with a length of 30 meters this tree crashed 3 gardens |
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| same tree, different view |
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| this one fell in opposite direction, crashing 2 gardens |
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| 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:-)
