COLD FEET !!!

[macmac]

Saw this poor mallard skating on the rhyne at the back of our plot this morning,'hope there's a thaw soon

[glallotments]

Here's another bird with cold feet. Not very clear as it was taken from a bedroom window so if you can't tell it is a blackbird.
They are walking across our frozen pond to get a drink from any thawed bits. Worryingly I think we are going to have some fish casualties of the cold weather

[MrsL]

Got skating ducks here too, most unamused; shivering goats and fed up chickens.
Bit worried for the bees, though

[Monika]

Glallotments, do you thaw a hole into the ice in your pond every day? If so, your fish should be ok, unless the pond is very shallow and freezes completely solid. In this very cold weather (down to minus 8 for the last two nights) I boil up an old saucepan with water every morning and evening and stand it on the same spot on the pond ice. It thaws a hole and any gases can escape.

It must be cold, because the reed buntings have started to come off the moor now (about half a mile away) to feed in gardens. They only do that when the food runs out at the moor edge.

[glallotments]

There is a permanent hole in the ice (in fact about a fifth of the pond's surface area but it looks as though we have at least one large dead fish.

The pond is about 5 feet deep so there is plenty of depth to it.

[mandylew]

I have a hedgehog in the garden and I'm wondering if it will be ok, funnily enough the hedgehog chose the same spot that my tortoise used to retire into every night during the summer (but he's hibernating in the garage now) waiting for the thaw to have a little peek.

[glallotments]

MandyLew: This is from a Tiggywinkles factsheet

"What happens in Extreme Temperatures?
When a hedgehog is hibernating it is essential that its temperature does not fall below 1°C or it will suffer frostbite or may even freeze solid. It is obviously unaware of the outside temperature but if the weather turns very cold, the hedgehog’s body brings into play brown fat reserves which are supercharged fuel boosts. This quickly produced heat is then pumped through the bloodstream, warming the muscles, causing them to shiver and produce even more heat until after three or four hours the hedgehog’s temperature will have risen by 25°C and its pulse rate to 320 beats per minute. It will then awake, realise that there is insufficient insulation in its present nest and move elsewhere to build another one".

Can you pop a pile of straw over the hedgehog to help insulate it. Remember it will look and feel dead when it is hibernating so don't give up on it.

Tiggywinkles factsheet
http://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/images/PDF/PDF%20Fact%20Sheets/Hedgehog%20Hibernation%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

[glallotments]

A fieldfare is now drinking from the pond regularly.

Again not a good photo as it is full zoom from upstairs window again - it's the only place to get a full view!

[glallotments]

And now a redwing! Just need a mistle thrush for the full thrush family set as we have also robins and dunnocks.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I found a male chaffinch frozen solid this morning, just sitting there on the path - dead.

The hens have hardly left their hut this week as they don't like getting their feet cold.

It is bringing lots of different birds into the garden though so my bird list is more interesting than usual. We've had redpol, siskin, 5 bullfinch, 3 brambling, a nuthatch and yesterday's star visitor was a reed bunting. All the finches are here in large numbers; and the woman across the road who likes to feed the crows on white sliced bread managed to attract over 150 birds yesterday afternoon counting jackdaws as well. Just like an Alfred Hitchcock film. I could just imagine there just being a pile of bones and some ginger hair left on her lawn if they all descended on her.

[pongeroon]

I saw two redwings scrapping outside Tesco in Worcester yesterday, just like a pair of chavs!

I was pleased to have recognised them, as I don't know many birds really. Chavs are more easy to identify.

[macmac]

I saw two redwings scrapping outside Tesco in Worcester yesterday, just like a pair of chavs!

I was pleased to have recognised them, as I don't know many birds really. Chavs are more easy to identify.

[Monika]

Our first bramblings turned up today, too, Plumpudding. Also a great spotted woodpecker, reed buntings as well as the usual crowd of finches (including two brilliantly coloured male bullfinches), tits and thrush family.

I feed a mixture of milled peanuts, sunflower hearts, porridge oats, currants and niger seeds on the ground and sunflower hearts, peanuts and suet in wire netting feeders, also a fat-filled tins. So, hopefully, everyone is provided for!

[Nature's Babe]

We had about a dozen long tailed tits on the fat balls today, so quick acrobatic and not that shy, I was within 3 ft of them.

[mandylew]

thanks glotments for that hedgehog tip, thats a bit alarming, however i had already covered with lots of straw and theres no snow on the spot where its chose which is under a big bush, I look every day to see if it has come out and theres no sign of disturbance of the straw, I think I will poke my min/max thermometer in tonight! When i looked a few weeks ago i could tell it was alive because it hissed! will put some food nearby as well.

Could always move it to the greenhouse where I originally had her in a box, but she preferred the spot she is now in.

I saw a chaffinch today I dont think I had ever seen one before the kids shouted out that there was a robin, I hope my cat doesn't get it. I would love to feed them but the cats are wicked.