nature notes update

Two firsts today: long tailed tits in my garden, testing the fat balls, and the first blackthorn blossoms of the year (due in January, really) up at Churchtown.

It hasn't been quite so cold today as recently, but damp and grey instead. Now that winter really seems to have set in more birds are coming to the garden. No sparrows at all - they are still on an elsewhere - but a small flock of mixed tits and chaffinches seems to pass through occasionally, mostly checking the birches for insects but also coming down to the feeders at the same time.

I took Ty up to Churchtown in the afternoon and spotted some blackthorn blossom on one of the hedges - at the same place as I have seen it in previous years, but even earlier, I think. Perhaps they will have a better year next year. There have been very few sloes on the trees this year, not to mention the missing acorns, hazelnuts, beech mast, blackberries, etc. There were a few berries on the holly, but almost all of them have been eaten already.

There are still a few flowers struggling on the brambles, and there are already catkins on the hazels.