Hi David,
Just the same here on the south coast in Dawlish. Our front windows look
onto a small park, and all day a large flock of Redwing, with a few
Fieldfare mixed in, have been searching for food in the few patches of
ground which are free of snow. On Saturday my wife and I saw Waxwings for
the first time in our lives, feeding on fallen fruit in another part of the
park. I've seen several groups of Lapwings passing over heading further
west.
Our small suburban garden is a little quieter - when we moved here a few
years ago it had a Leylandii hedge, a large cypress and a eucalyptus tree.
Sadly all of them were way too large for the garden and had to come out.
We've replanted with native hedge and tree species, but these haven't yet
grown large enough to provide adequate bird cover so we don't get many
visitors. Today however I was able to add Meadow Pipit to our garden list,
and get a close-up view of it snacking on a heap of grain we'd put out.
The cold and snow may be hard on wildlife and commuters, but it's wonderful
to spend a few days living so much closer to some of the scarcer and more
elusive species!
All the best,
Tom
On 20 December 2010 17:17, Avocet <> wrote:
> We don't do snow very well in the UK, mainly because it's cheaper to
> be optimistic and it's other people's fault if they get stuck in snow,
> like when there's no road grit. Anyway, for the second time in 10
> years I'm snowed in so what better chance to take advantage with a bit
> of recording. BTW I'm a "snowfooter", a strange lot who revel in close
> contact with nature and I've been complaining about the lack of snow
> in Devon, but that's another Yahoo group.
>
> The first cold spell, everything went quiet except the stream. I
> recorded daytime and nightime and got plenty of nothing and that deer
> I've got doubts about. Plenty of gunfire - it's like the Somme some
> evenings. Good wildlife is dead wildlife around these parts. Then on
> Friday came six inches of white and everyhing went quiet except a few
> very distant birds. However, on Thursday I had bought a bird table but
> nothing seemed to use it.
>
> That was then and it's now avian Hyde Park Corner. I've set up my
> stereo pair a few metres from the bird table looking on into the
> woods. I shifted the SQN mixer arrangement into my bedroom and I can
> now lie in bed recording the evening and dawn chorus, listening on
> speakers, and thumbing through my bird book. I'm slowly learning how
> many different calls a blackbird can make. I thought one call was a
> squirrel, but squirrels don't fly - not here at least. I've also set
> up a small video camera to help me identify species, and so far I've
> id'd Blue, Great and Coal tits, the resident Robin, at least one LBJ,
> several Blackbirds and a Pied woodpecker trying to demolish the nut
> feeder. In the woods across the car park there are Tawny owls, Rooks,
> Jackdaws, Crows and a Raven at least. No finches so far, but plenty in
> the summer.
>
> I previously followed the principle of leaving nature to its own
> devices, but there's nothing like a bit of bribery to bring it all
> close. One Blackbird sits at the base of the table while I stock it up
> with suet pellets. If this snow doesn't melt soon, I'll be out of
> pellets. When I've sorted and catalogued the recordings I'll put some
> up, but in the meantime I've got birds' wingbeats flying around my
> bedroom. Never realised they could be so noisy.
>
> David
>
> David Brinicombe
> North Devon, UK
> Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - Ambrose Bierce
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> "While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
> sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
|