And yet another visitor

I am not sure why this is happening, either we are becoming more observant in our old age, or we are spending more time idly gazing out of the window, but another newcomer has literally landed itself onto our list of visitors.
This time it is a Dunnock. Not an unusual bird to see, but another first in our garden.

 

Not a very spectacular colouring, and it is quite possible there have been dunnocks in the garden before and we did not realise it was not a sparrow, but it has a more pointed beak and the legs are a different colour, with that distinctive grey area around the head.

Another bird in the bush and some shadows

This shy individual is a Fieldfare, attracted by the particular berries on this tree.
In late summer the tree looks like this, but the birds have stripped it almost bare.

None of the regular visiting birds ever touch these berries, apart from the occasssional pigeon.  Sparrows, robins, blackbirds etc all ignore them, but they attract Redwings and Feildfares to come into our garden, when we otherwise would never see them.

And now for something completely different...
Another shadow that amost makes the TV look as if it is switched on.

Shadows

 Having recently seen Kaybee's snow sun and shadow pictures has prompted me to post these pictures I took of our glass table.  When the sun is just right (and out) it makes an odd pattern of shadows and reflections on the wall and the radiator.  (Check out the link if you have not seen Kaybee's pictures)

The rectangle is a table mat still on the tabel

This time the table is clear

Nothing to do with chadows but I managed to capture these two Redwings eating winter berries a few days ago

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Winter continues

 We had a little more snow again today and I quickly snapped a few pictures (in poor light) in order to capture them before the snow melted. The birds were making the best of our bird feeder and we had quite a collection in the garden. I was unable to snap every kind that arrived looking for food, they tend to act camera shy and vanish as soon as I have got them in shot.

Twisted Hazel with two visitors in there somewhere

 

All the smaller birds disappear when he arrives

 Magpies will take baby chicks from smaller bird's nests in spring, so he is not very popular with them.

Robins are regular visitors and are very territorial, so he may be the same one we see most days

The snow did go mostly during the day, but there is still a little left and the temperature is falling rapidly this evening so it could be icy tomorrow.

Winter

He is not an inchie, I drew him on the computer for our Crristmas tags, using an art package

 We have had our first taste of winter.  Actual snow fell one day but it was gone the next.  We have had some frost before that but nothing terrible, the coldest nightwas about minus 7C.  The cold may be returning but for the last two days it has kept well above freezing in our tiny corner of the UK.  Elswhere in the Eastern side of the country the weather has been a bit more disruptive but it only take a few flakes of snow to bring our country to a grinding halt.   Even though we regularly get snow, it always seems to come as a suprise and find the roads and most importantly, the road users totally unprepared.

The terrible winter of 2012