A New Garden Bird

Last weeks severe winter weather had a dramatic effect on the number of birds feeding in the garden and we had a record fourteen Long Tailed Tits and six Reed Buntings. What we didn’t expect was a new species to appear after residing in Castleton for fifty years. As our local canal was frozen inches thick in ice a Moorhen decided to walk into our garden and climbed up to the fat balls. It spent two days coming and going to the fat balls until the canal had thawed out and we have not seen it since. Photos in this weeks gallery.Click here
With the return of spring-like weather this week I found my first frog-spawn on the 7th and encountered my first male Adder on the same date even though the temperature was only 8 degrees C and there was snow on the ground!