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Saturday 11 February 2023

Look what the snow brought!

The snow’s gone now, but it stayed around for about a week. Although we only had about one inch, it brought some interesting birds to our feeders. What is it about Bramblings and snow? I’ve never seen one here before (even when we did have snow), but this time our temperatures hovered around zero for about a week, so that might have something to do with it. First there was just one Brambling, then after a few days more arrived, and we saw two males and two females. They then disappeared as soon as the snow did! It was the same in Brittany, they would appear, usually with other finches, as soon as there was snow, then go off to who knows where when the snow melted.

It wasn’t just this one exciting garden tick, but two. Because after a couple of days of snow, a female Hawfinch came to our feeders and hung around for a few days. Now whilst we saw Bramblings when we had snow in Brittany, we haven’t seen a Hawfinch since we lived near Geneva over 18 years ago, where we would have flocks of them in the garden in the winter. Shame no male came, but we are not complaining!

It’s the first time we’ve seen snow actually fall on the plain here, normally we have snow up on our hill and nothing down below, 







Male Brambling







Female Hawfinch







All photos taken by Keith, and this post has been done on my iPad as my desk is still not accessible, though I have nearly finished the office!

P.S. I wrote all this a week ago but kept forgetting to post it! The office is finished now apart from a large cupboard which I’m painting, I’m very happy with the colour and will share some photos when it’s all completed. 😀

6 comments:

  1. Lovely photos and so envious of your brambling - its one of my "bogey" birds! I have seen Hawfinch though - just one in a local churchyard a few years ago. Look forward to seeing photos of finished office :)

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    1. Hi Caroline - so sorry for the delay in replying. Finally at my desk, although it is covered in plants as I am not 100% finished in here yet! Still waxing the parquet (a real pain, waxed floor and puking cats do not go together!). Thanks for your lovely comment. Also huge apologies for not having caught up with you yet! xx

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    2. Now I'm Anon from my desk!!! I just don't know what is going on here. Grrrrr!

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  2. SO exciting! I don't know these birds so I loved seeing them :-) Kudos to Keith for the great photos!!! (Marianne from Arizona)

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    1. I seem to be Anon on my desktop for some unknown reason - anyway, many thanks Marianne for commenting! xx

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  3. You have a very interesting and helpful blog. Keep it up! ❤️️

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