Friday 8th January

I've been confined to the house since Tuesday, looking after my wife who's recovering from an op, and also my boys as their school has been closed since Thursday. Garden watching it was, but despite the garden feeders being full and a plentiful supply of fresh water being provided the garden seems pretty much deserted. Perhaps the birds are finding easier pickings elsewhere or maybe some of them have perished (where have 'my' Coal Tits gone)? After exceptionally heavy snow first thing (when one chap skied down South Street!) I was pleased at least to see 5x Greenfinch feeding in the Field Maples at the back on my garden, my peak count this winter has been 2, much reduced from the 25+ I've had in previous years. These are the trees that were frequented by the Hawfinches in recent years, and they were often associating with the Greenfinch flock - fingers crossed!

This afternoon was spent sledging off Church Lane, Barming. Where the sledging slope had been worn down to grass I was suprised to see a Meadow Pipit and Robin, dodging the sledges to pick at whatever had been churned up. Nine plus Lesser Redpoll were also still feeding in a Silver Birch in South Street, Barming.

Icicles outside my lad's bedroom window have grown massively in the last two days - sorry for another photo, just fascinated by them, and this in the first winter my eldest boy has seen them (he's now six!).

Sunday 20th December

Another inch or so of snow fell overnight, refreshing the stained snow of the last couple of days. The number of bird species in the garden looked to have increased when I looked out the window at breakfast; Starlings (very irridescent today), Woodpigeons, Jay and Song Thrush (always good to have in the garden) were all present, picking and feeding on anything they could find. I managed some snaps through the kitchen window of the braver birds that fed on my homemade cheese-lard-sultana-breadcrumb treats (brave to eat anything of mine that was homemade or brave to come so close to the house!).

I don't know what was going on with the Woodpigeons; they were having a feeding frenzy in the ivy at the back of the garden, probably on seed I guess (unless a misplaced shot by one of the neighbours had deposited half a loaf of bread in there).

I still couldn't get my car off the drive in South Street, Barming, so I walked my lad up the road for a lift to a birthday party he had been invited to. I glanced at the Silver Birch at the top of the road and immediately picked out a Redpoll, though I couldn't make out if it was Lesser or Common. I quickly dropped James off and rushed back for the camera. By the time I had returned to the tree there were 3 birds; 2 were Lesser, the 3rd I could quite make out. I tried to get some record shots but failed miserably.....grrrrr. The birds suddenly took flight with some Redwings and so I decided to check out the nearby churchyard and orchard. The churchyard held more Redwings and the orchard was full of Fieldfares and Blackbirds (21 individuals in one row). One Fieldfare had the misfortune to end up as a Sparrowhawk's breakfast; I got a quick glimpse of the raptor on the orchard flew before it flew off with Fieldfare in it's talons. I looked through some of the plucked feathers that littered the ground, black and grey, a sombre combination reminiscent of a guardsman's great coat (see pic below), but smart when they're still attached to the bird!

I managed a glimpse of Barming Bridge through the apple trees, there seemed to be a large flock of Canada Geese milling around the bridge - where there's people there's food I guess! Going back to collect James I checked out the South St Silver Birch again - 6x Redpolls now. I managed some pics but no sure that Common (Mealy) was in there with them; most views were of the undersides which glowed persil-white in the snow-reflected sunshine.

I know I harked on about this yesterday but the icicles today were fantastic - drip, dripping everywhere.


James snapped one of the church porch (just after I'd told him not to) - it was about half the size of him.

The fresh layer of snow looked beautiful, I took more pictures knowing that it would all probably be washed away tomorrow. The evening light on the snow made it look almost like a foaming sea, I've got pictures like the one below from my holidays in Cornwall!

We finished the day with more sledging until it got too dark, the last rays of sun catching the River Medway below our sledging slope.

Saturday 19th December

Looking after the kids again while my wife worked - the car was still stranded so over the back sledging again! Look at how a 6-year old reacts when you give him a sledge and a present him with a field full of snow (probably the same reaction Murray Wright experienced when he scoped The Swale on 16th September this year!).


Little in the way of birds, with the exception of 5x Dunnocks in the garden and a couple of squabbling Blackbirds. A pair of Grey Squirrels are systematically stripping the Field Maples in the playing fields of all their seed keys, so even if the Hawfinches turn up this winter there isn't going to be much for them to feed on. Oh, and the first icicles I've seen in years!