Return of the redwings?

With the return of the cold weather, perhaps we have the return of the redwings - Disgruntled noticed one in his front garden this morning amongst a group of blackbirds.

2010 Rainfall

Rainfall during 2010.


Average of the rainfall over the last three years. Despite the snow, December actually had a very low rainfall total. For the year, the total was 701.5 mm, which compares to 880.5 mm for 2009.

Unknown birds

The unusual weather is causing some more unusual birds to turn up. Disgruntled saw the following little brown thing today - it is sparrow sized, but not a sparrow - wrong beak type. Not a dunnock either - wrong plumage. Any ideas?



Likewise on the reserve (and the ducks are hungry - the cold weather is keeping people away, and they got through two loaves of bread today. If Tesco is selling off any old bread at 5p a loaf as they sometimes do, buy it and go and feed them!), the following two unknown ducks were seen:







They dabble, and Disgruntled thought that they might be female shovellers, but the plumage is wrong. Any ideas?

Definitely winter again

Definitely winter again - flocks of redwings and fieldfares have turned up in numbers over the course of the week. The hard winter is having an effect on the reserve, with the lake largely freezing over. The ducks have kept part of it open as they are forced to congregate in one area.

Meteor?

Disgruntled was in the Sainsbury East Filton branch car park this evening when he noticed an orange ball in the sky moving from south to north. He can best describe it as looking like the same orange glow you sometimes see when a low evening sun reflects off an aircraft, creating an orange moving flash. Except that at 7:25 pm this evening it was dark and cloudless. The ball moved over the MoD Abbeywood area, gradually fading until it disappeared completely when almost directly overhead and to the east of the supermarket. It wasn't an aircraft, as they have flashing warning lights on them - Disgruntled can only assume that it was a meteor burning up in the atmosphere. Did anyone else see it?

Sparrowhawk

Disgruntled was in Hawkins Crescent when he say a medium sized bird dive out of a bush. The colour of a woodpigeon on top, it suddenly swooped upwards and perched on top of a house roof, next to a woodpigeon. Woodpigeons don't fly like that though, and as it stood there the reddy-brown stripes on its white chest gave it away - it was a sparrowhawk, which explains the lack of other bird noise. It only rested for five to ten seconds before flying off.

Mad green woodpeckers

There is at least one green woodpecker in Bradley Stoke, and the one which Disgruntled saw this morning seems to have a blatant disregard for its own safety. It was sat in the gutter on Bradley Stoke Way near the bridge over the reserve, seemingly completely unperturbed by the cars driving past it. I guess that it was after ants, which seem to be emerging at the moment.