Snow, Bullfinches, Dipper and a Sparrowhawk

Endcliffe Park

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On Saturday evening the predicted snow came down very fast. By the morning it was five inches deep. I set up the camera on a tripod with flash and remote control pointed at a branch I had rigged up next to the bird feeder and sat in the comfort of the breakfast area, control button in hand. I captured Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Dunnock, and male and female Bullfinches, which were my target. While we were watching the birds a Sparrowhawk landed in a tree 10 feet away.

In the afternoon I walked to Endcliffe Park and followed the Porter Brook upstream. I spotted a Dipper 100 metres below Hangingwater Lane, but nothing from there to near Forge Dam. On my return I found the Dipper on the same stretch and was able to photograph it in two places where it fed and rested. I heard it sing its wonderfully melodious song for the first time. I checked out  Shepherd Wheel millpond where a birder had told me he had seen a Kingfisher recently.

Blue Tit, Cyanistes caeruleus

Blue Tit

female Bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula

female Bullfinch

male Bullfinch

Coal Tit, Periparus ater

Coal Tit

Dunnock, Prunella modularis

Great Tit, Parus major

Great Tit

Robin, Erithacus rubecula

Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes

The leylandii had keeled over with the weight of snow

This lorry couldn't make it up the hill

Magpie, Pica pica

mill pond

Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes

Dipper, Cinclus cinclus