Wednesday 6th.January 2010

With a good 3 inches of snow falling overnight , and continuous light fall from daybreak onwards , needless to say , today's hedgelaying up on the Greensand Ridge went out of the window .

And it was looking out of the window , that I spent much of the day , in between replenishing food and water for the birds in the back garden . I don't think I have ever seen food devoured so quickly as it was today , with birds in the garden uncountable at times as there were so many coming and going . I did get a couple of jobs done in the garage , during which time I might have missed the odd species , but the garden list today totalled 19 , which is 3 better than the bird survey at Down House the other day . Not so many Redwings today , although a couple were attracted to the scramble for food on the path , but never came down to ground , but the 3 Fieldfares spent most of the day fossicking on the ground under the Cotoneaster bush next door . No sign today of any of the Blackcaps , even though the Callicarpa berries were freed of lying snow by the Chaffinches landing on the shrub before settling down on the path to feed . Nothing outstanding , just a continuous stream of hungry , thirsty birds , some of which follow -

I was concentrating on taking this long range shot of the Fieldfare , that it wasn't till later , I noticed the Redwing with it's back to the camera bottom left .

Like yesterday's shots , all taken with the new gear , answering Warren's question .