Category: Blog

2 days before storms and gales are forecast we had a lovely walk in the sunshine in the garden and grounds of the 17th Century Dyrham Park, one of the most notable stately homes of its age.

In the gardens there were robins everywhere and two visited us very close up.

Post script

Sadly there were no deer to see in the parkland – see note below from the National Trust

“We are very sad to report that due to high levels of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) detected in our deer that we have had to cull the entire herd at Dyrham Park.

Despite our efforts to try to control the disease which has included taking advice from Government agencies and other experts, infection rates have continued to rise since it was first detected on site in 2007.  We have therefore sadly been left with no other choice but to cull the deer in order to prevent any further suffering due to this terrible disease.  The health and welfare of the deer herd has always been our number one priority. 

We – all our staff and volunteers – are all devastated by this decision and the loss of the much-loved deer herd from this very special parkland setting and we understand how upsetting this is for everyone. 

While it has been a very sad few months coming to this conclusion, we do have every intention to rid the site of bTB and will reintroduce the deer to this historic parkland setting as soon as we are able. “

It was chilly this morning but the sun broke through in the afternoon and I enjoyed my daily exercise walking between Stoke Park and Eastville Park. It was very muddy around Duchess Pond in Stoke Park and I was glad I had chosen to wear wellies.

I only went as far as the entrance to Eastville Park as I spent too long watching 4 long-tailed tits building nests. What a treat.

As part of the National Gardens Scheme we were able to visit the garden of Algars Mill, a 2 acre woodland garden bisected by the River Frome near Iron Acton just north of Bristol.

The main feature of this splendid garden at this time of the year is the spring bulbs and shrubs; in particular the wild Newent daffodils.

It was wonderful on this splendid day to breathe the countryside and to take some exercise in this glorious garden avoiding the crowds of our local park.

A definite note of optimism today with beautiful wall to wall sunshine – at times there was real warmth in the sun and we even sat in the garden to have a late morning coffee.

The highlights of our walk in our local park were a jay, a gold crest (sadly only one chance to take a photo and I did miserably) and long tail tits (I didn’t fare much better with them either).

I thought the blue tit singing in the sun with blue sky behind was my best effort.

To any readers of my blog I apologise that the scope of my blogs is very limited, but such are the necessities of a lockdown. I felt very privileged this morning to have such lovely views of two of my favourite birds: a kingfisher and a grey wagtail. I also enjoyed seeing the gulls (lesser black-backed and black-headed) on the frozen lake, the excitable Canada geese, a crow bashing a nut against a rock and a cute squirrel. I aplologise for a second time that I have included so many photos in my slideshow but hope you enjoy them.

It was very cold as we walked around the park this morning (with a wind chill factor making it feel like -6 degrees) but it was a pleasant experience as it was sunny and there was lots of activity. Coots and Canada geese in particular were very agitated and very noisy as they are getting ready for breeding.

I haven’t seen grey herons there recently so it was rewarding to see the juvenile back and managing to catch some lunch.

We couldn’t face the crowds at the local park today and so my bird watching was restricted to half an hour in my garden.

I was pleased to add two new birds to my garden list (which I am working on – My Garden List) with a wren and a female black cap.

There was a lovely window of sunshine this morning and we risked the crowds at our local park. We were pleasantly surprised as there were fewer people than of late and most were adhering to social distancing rules; also the council (or volunteers?) had cleared the paths of mud.

We looked for kingfishers and dippers but, although everyone and his/her dog had seen them, we were unlucky. We were cheered by seeing long-tailed tits and hearing plenty of robins. Two swans were building a nest on kingfisher island and a cormorant was looking splendid in its breeding plumage.

There was a new addition to the lake and someone had floated a model Colosseum. Athens-on -sea maybe.

It seems that this recent addition is the work of The Bristol Duck Project

www.instagram.com/thebristolduckproject/

Although we were still ploughing through muddy paths on a local walk this afternoon on the edge of the Frome Valley in Bristol, we felt a definite note of optimism as there were plenty of signs of regrowth.

Whilst many parts of Britain are feeling the cold with lots of snow here in the south west of England it was a very mild morning and I was able to do some birdwatching from home without even putting a sweater on.

Over the weekend 0f 29th-31st January the RSPB is asking people in the UK to spend an hour counting the birds in their garden or from their balcony. This is what we saw in our tiny urban garden on Saturday 30th from 9:15 to 10:15 am.

8 goldfinch
2 blue tits
1 house sparrow
1 coal tit
1 dunnock
2 blackbirds
2 magpies
2 jackdaws
1 starling
2 wood pigeons
2 collared doves
1 robin

I managed to photograph some of these birds from my bathroom window or by standing in the garden.

We have had our first snow of the winter and I’m very frustrated at home self-isolating; oh to be able get out and take some shots of snowy scenes! But as the French say “faute de grives on mange des merles” (“for lack of thrushes we eat blackbirds”, in other words “beggers can’t be choosers” or “half a loaf is better than no bread”) and I’ve taken a few shots from my garden.