More birdies, hoorah

It was a great weekend for birdwatching last weekend. We had all the usual visitors but with a lovely snowy backdrop, a couple of ones who visit only rarely (long-tailed tits, goldfinch) and then I happened to look out my kitchen window and see six of these hopping around in the leaves along the side of the driveway.

I had no idea what they were at first, but their behaviour was a lot like a blackbird or thrush foraging for insects.

Happily, the BTO guide to garden birds is arranged for duffers like me to be able to find things quickly; I was being visited by six redwings, which are a rather rare type of thrush that visit this country in winter. The snow had driven them out of the fields and onto my driveway in search of food.

Our resident blackbird, who has been known to dive-bomb us when we get out of our cars in breeding season, saw them off fairly sharpish. I caught glimpses of them amongst the trees later in the day, but not anything as good as all six, rummaging in the leaves.

This weekend coming, I'll be setting an hour aside to take part in my 3rd Big Garden Birdwatch. Sign your garden up here!

Plinkography: Snowmageddon!

Hulloes!

Plink here, with some more tip-top Plinkography for you.

Apart from enjoying the bracing weather, Friday provided a great opportunity to watch some of the wildlife in the garden in the snow.

One stupid dove... ah ha ha... 

TWO stupid doves... ah ha ha... 

Would've been nice of it to turn around... 

Pirate the Cat. He's not keen on snow. 

Very soggy squirrel

Posing Robin

Hope you had fun in the snow too! Back soon with more Plinkography!

Makies in the Snow

Take two Makies.

Hullo!

Add a good dumping of snow.

Snow angels?!

Encourage creativity.

We call him Mr Slumpy

Allow pioneering.

Taa daa!

Provide cleaning facilities...

Flipping heck... 

...and lots of hot chocolate.

Better.

RED ZONE

What a dramatic title!

The Meteorological Office here in the UK likes to give weather warnings a colour. Yellow is a bit iffy. Amber is look out. Red is... omgwtfbbqroflmao lock up your valuables and hang on for a fun time of it.

They announced a red snow warning for today for the UK. Here's why it's a red warning...

Many parts of the Red Warning area are likely to have 20-30 cm of snow with strong southeasterly winds causing blizzards, severe drifting of lying snow and thus severe disruption. The public should avoid all non-essential journeys.

And oooh look. A map!

RED is BAD

Oh dear. The Welsh Institute for Makie Science happens to be on the bottom edge of the red area... and the hospital where I work is well into the middle of it!

When we woke up this morning, there were a good four inches of snow on the ground and it's continued to snow all day. I must admit, once the traffic news started rolling in, I didn't even attempt to get my car off of the driveway. I'd handed over all my patients to one of the juniors who lives on site yesterday, and my Consultant told me in no uncertain terms that if I did make it to the hospital, he'd just send me home again. 

So I've been sat in the armchair, drinking tea and photographing the wildlife through the window... 

Poor Squirrel

...and then some very wild wildlife showed up...

O hai!

More to come!