Fly down and be counted

Hazel catkins and sunny skies

Big Garden Birdwatch weekend didn't start too well.  My first hour's count was a bit sparse (only seven species), so I tried again and did a little better.  I put it down to its being rather windy - the first windy weather we've had for some time - which might have discouraged some birds from visiting, so the next day, in brighter and calmer weather, I spent a third hour doing a count.  This time a wider range of birds (12 species) appeared, including chaffinches, goldfinches and a mistle thrush.  Among the no-shows were the wren, which had been around for my earlier counts and came by a few hours after my 'official' count; it appears most days, sometimes hopping along the sill outside the dining room window in search of bugs.  I had been hoping that the song thrush might turn up; it was singing lustily around the turn of the year, and occasionally foraging under the shrubs, but I hadn't seen it for a few weeks.

Snowy garden

Then, after a quiet and mild winter so far, the weather turned cold this past week; a couple of frosty days were followed by a significant snowfall on Thursday night and an icy Friday and Saturday morning.  It ought to turn mild again from Sunday.  The song thrush reappeared, looking for food on the patio, and four bullfinches (two males and two females) searched the plum tree for buds.  As the weather turned chilly, a little flock of red-legged partridges trotted into the garden to poke around the veg plot and took shelter under the buddleia, where some of them sat looking very miserable as it turned dark.  Meanwhile, in spite of the cold, the birds are still pairing up; the robins are still together, and two dunnocks seem to be hanging out as a pair.

Shallot bed in preparation

Before the cold weather drew in I managed a couple of jobs in the garden.  The pond has been raked out, removing a lot of weed and some grass that had rooted in there.  The shallot order arrived, so a bed in the veg plot was prepared for them with a layer of homemade compost covered with black polythene to keep some of the cold out and to allow the ground to warm up; I haven't been good in the past at trying to warm the soil before spring planting, so this is by way of turning over a new leaf.  One job still outstanding is to prune the big apple tree and the wisteria, but that is best left until the temperature is a little warmer.