3rd February - The First Real Cold Snap

The cold still persists, and at long last the birds are returning to the garden, but still not the same numbers as last year.  Snow is forecast Sunday so we will see what that brings in.

The female Pied Wagtail was present early on, and whilst the majority of her tail feathers have grown they do not seem to be at full length, as you can see from the photograph the outer feathers seem to be shorter, and not fully in place.

The video camera is on the bird bath for the time being, and it demonstrates how much the residents use it, as they arrive at the bath and look quite puzzled when they find it frozen.  This Blue Tit though was lucky as it found some water that hadn’t re-frozen and enjoyed a drink.

Of note this morning was the presence of 3 Rooks, normally I only see them flying over, but today they actually ventured into the garden.  I was unable to catch them in the garden but did manage a shot of one through the window scavenging from some food that had been dropped in the road.

While trying to photograph the blue tits, I noticed this individual. 

It would appear that the feathers have been stripped from the left side of it’s head around the eye.  It looked very strange to begin with, more like Richard from Boardwalk Empire!.  The bird did not seem to mind, and was feeding well from the feeders along with the other tits, but it must be cold for it right now, at least I will be able to see if it keeps coming.