More at the feeding station

Siberian Jay

Pine Grosbeak

Siberian Jay

Feeding station in Northern Finland

A short winter break to arctic Norway and Finland to see a few special birds and the Northern Lights. After flying to Helsinki and then taking another flight north to Ivalo we hired a car and drove north through the taiga forest stopping at a feeding station where we were lucky enough to see the following….

Pine Grosbeak

Siberian Tit

Driving in Norway

If you are going to do an independent birding trip to Norway in the winter then be prepared for some challenging but scenically beautiful driving.

https://youtu.be/vdHZUnG_kf8

A taste of things to come…

So Wayne’s returned from Norway with hundreds of images to process but here’s a short video of one of the reasons they went to Varanger the Stellars Eider


https://youtu.be/k1Iitt2CK7c

Still winter despite being spring

So I'm still indisposed with sciatica and bad back and Wayne is living it up in Varanger, Norway with Graham and Neil, life's just not fair but with a reported first nights temperature of -34 whilst in Finland I think I made the right decision not to go! Plus I would have missed the 18 Siskins and a solitary Redpoll on the Niger seed feeders this afternoon and no doubt Wayne will come back with lots of photos for the blog which hopefully will go on early next week.  It has been absolutely freezing here though with an inch or so of snow on the ground this morning and talk of rationing gas supplies as apparently we are running out having had such a long cold winter - we may officially be in spring but it doesn't feel like.

Garden birds

I have chronic sciatica which has got progressively worse since November, it’s now so bad I have resorted to taking pictures of the feeders in the garden as I can hardly get my boots on to go out! so if any one has any miraculous cures……

GoldfinchGoldfinches and SiskinsAn unexpected RedwingTwo of around 30 Siskins visiting the garden

Adder out in the cold..

 

Winter Aconites in the park..

 

Snowdrops in colour..

 

Snowdrops in Black and White

 

UFO, Russian meteorite and Asteroid 2012 DA14……

…….any connection with the link below?

http://theshadoxhurstgarden.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/satellite-space-junk-or-ufo-over.html

for further explanation http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/across-the-universe/2013/feb/15/russian-meteorite-strike-highlights-asteroid-danger

anyway look to the skies tonight with your bins and who knows what you might see!

Normanby’s Snowdrops on the way

The Snowdrops have been pushing their heads up for a month now and so are just entering their prime…