More birds in the snow

Its still bitterly cold but the snow is beginning to thaw. rain is predicted this evening, so I thought I would take one last walk up the track. The sky was blue and the sun shining, but the weather was still very cold, my ungloved hand (needed to operate my camera) was painful from the cold after just a few minutes.

There were many herring gulls sitting on the snowy roof tops and looked as if their white plumage was specifically to camouflage them against the snow. They certainly did not look out of place.

There was a lot more bird activity today, sparrows flying too and fro and small flocks of starlings flew by. A flash of gold caught my eye.

It was a solitary goldfinch. It flew past and settled on a tree in one of the gardens. We often have small flocks of goldfinch in the area, small feeding flocks which also provide safety in numbers, but it was a bit more unusual to see this one on its own.

I reached the end of the track and turned left to the road where I could get a view of the snow covered South Downs.

I walked back down the track towards our house.

I small flock of noise blue tits passed through foraging for food. I also spotted a dunnock foraging in the foliage lower down.

A male and female blackbird hoped around in the branches

and then flew to another tree.

I kept an eye out for birds from our back garden time to time.

 A small flock of lapwing flew over, followed by two stragglers.

I could also hear the noisy tec-tec alarm call of a robin in our neighbours garden.

It called, then flicked its tail and hopped from left to right

I guess one of the many neighbourhood cats was prowling around.