Green woodpecker

I went to the cemetry in Shoreham to place flowers on my dads grave when I saw a green woodpecker fly in to the cemetry and peck at the grass. (no pic unfortunately)

Walk in the Snow

The snow continued overnight. I measured the snow in the back garden and it was 12 cm deep.

After working thye first part of the morniong (I would have liked to have gone outstraight away) I went for a walk around the village.

The road outside our house. Portslade Old village is a beautiful place, made all the more beautiful by the blanket of snow. There were quite a few birds around, espcially blue and great tits.

Great tits

I carried on walking to Easthill Park which had also be transformed by the snow.

I watched several grey squirrels chasing each other in the snow, scampering up trees and along branches.

As they ran across branches they scattered snow.

Squirrel drey

As I came out of the park I noticed a great spotted woodpecker fly into the park from across the road. I went back in and noticed there was actuially two great spotted woodpeckers.

The woodpeckers moved up the branches, stopping occasionally to peck at the bark. After a few minutes they flew off further into the park and dissapeared into the top of an evergreen.

Snow

A surprising heavy snowfall (for Sussex) this evening.

Winter bees and hoverflies

A nice clear (if cold) sunny day, very welcome after all the rain and gales. A red admiral flew around the garden looking for nectar. Two large bees visited the hebe which is still in flower.

One appeared to be a large buff tailed bumble bee posibly a queen) and a large red tailed bumble bee, which flew off before I could get a close look.

There were also numerous hoveflies also visting the hebe.

Woodpigeon

I'm not really a fan of woodpigeons, mainly because they they eat all the food that I put out for other smaller birds. However, this particular woodpigeon has been doing a great job in the garden eating all the acorns from the neigbours tree (not sure what species its not a traditional oak tree).

Anyway, come spring the acorns sprout everywhere - the early leaves are a bit like holly. Really hard to get rid of. If I left them we would be living in a firest by now!