Autumn Splendour

Snow cover on the ground today has brought to an end a spectacular Autumn. With the exclusion of the last couple of weeks we have had record temperatures and exceptional colours in the hills. This weeks blog photo is of the Strid in Wharfedale where the whole of the river Wharfe enters a spectacular gorge covered in moss and surrounded by Beech trees – it makes a perfect autumn picture. The record temperatures this autumn had a garden hedgehog still active on the 17th November and even more surprising a male Adder out in the sunshine on the 2nd November.The only downside is that the cold spring and Summer has now resulted in their being very few berries on the Rowan and Hawthorne trees. What thrushes that are still around have been forced to search for leftover berries on the ground. Click here

This last week the garden has come alive with 22 House Sparrows and 26 Goldfinches feeding on different dates. It remains to be seen whether these numbers increase during future snowfalls.