Snow Flurries

Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Thursday 11th February 1999
flurryLIGHT SNOW THIS MORNING, it's not as cold, or as clear, as yesterday.

starlingsThe snow seemed to bring in the Starlings from their regular foraging on the valley side pastures; 50 to 100 of them descended on a house roof, then dipped down onto the front lawn.

blackbirdsThe wood seemed alive with Blackbirds, at least eight together, and a Jay was busy in the branches.

fieldfares
Unusually for this winter, there are 20 plus Fieldfares in the valley and there may be another 100 lined up on a wire in the misty distance, but I haven't brought binoculars. But, even without binoculars on this dullish day, their size and silhouette, and the number of them make Mistle Thrush or Song Thrush unlikely and when I hear the soft chuckle calls that clinches it for me.

snipe jayA second Jay, this time on farmland at the bottom of the Balk and for a second day there's a wisp of Snipe, three of them this time, on the rushy, canal-side pasture.



Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail;'richard@daelnet.co.uk'



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