Stewchat...

Now that the New Year is upon us, I have three months to use up my annual leave entitlement. Breaking it down, this means I can, if I wish, work a four day week until April. Which is nice...

Today was day one. I like taking a Monday off.

It was clear and sunny and quite pleasant with that hint of spring about it. The wildlife wasn't to be fooled by this though as there were no birds singing, and while clearing a wild corner of the garden to make way for a compost heap, I unearthed an hibernating Hedgehog. He was well wrapped in a ball of leaves, so I took him and his whole nest and created a makeshift box in another weedy corner ( I have plenty of wild areas). This was then covered in leaf litter and loose dead vegetation to keep him sheltered. We look forward to seeing him in spring.

On the bird table, the Tree Sparrow flock now numbers 30 birds, equally the commonest garden bird alongside Chaffinch and House Sparrow! This is a great increase on the 4 - 6 birds I usually get here in winter. A few walks out with Bunty in between doing the garden had very little really - a flock of 5 Mistle Thrushes, 1 Guillemot, 16 Eider, 12 and 7 Grey Partridges and a flock of geese flew N over the sea too far away to i.d with bins.

As soon as it was dark, a Barn Owl hissed loudly as it flew overhead. I just managed to get the torch on to it before it made off over the fields to hunt.

I caught my first moths of 2012 last night - 1 Winter Moth and 1 Dark Chestnut.

Dark Chestnut