Well the easter weekend weather was interesting! The sun rose bright at dawn and promised crystal clear, crisp days with heavy frosts that disappear underfoot with a delicious crunch. The sort of days that freeze just the tips of your ears and nose but don't maliciously chill to the bone, in short, perfect birding days. But by around nine the sun had faded behind fuzzy snow clouds and the wind had picked up to Orcadian proportions. Once the snow started, the wind was driving it into faces with viscious velocity and slicing through layers of clothing as if the wearer was dressed for a Hawaiian holiday! Next thing though, the sun came back and the snow fell more gently and eventually stopped, as the wind hurried off to find new victims to chill and suddenly it would be spring for an hour. Until the illusion was shattered by heavy sleet and leaden grey clouds like a blanket of work morning misery. Ah well, that's the UK for you!
When I had the opportunity I spent some time in the conservatory drinking coffee and watching the feeders. The sparrows are always good value and, now the males are beginning to get a bit short with one another, they can be quite noisy in crowds. It's interesting to see how they react to the changing conditions, one minute fluffed up against the wind and snow looking for all the world like they've entered a grumpiest sparrow competition, and the next shouting at each other, vying for position on the feeders, and sitting on the back wall soaking up the sun. Other birds were affected by the cold too, the collared doves seemed to be bl**dy freezing at times, whilst their cousins, the woodpigeons, payed no attention and turned the back wall into some kind of bird porn movie set! I honestly don't know where the male gets the energy and that female is as easy as a four piece jigsaw!
Elmley is bursting with hares, all thinking the same thing, or at least the males are. The females though (unlike the brazen woodpigeon) are playing hard to get, boxing and running the males round in circles. The peregrine was back on her mudpile on Monday and again I couldn't take my eyes off of her, not in a woodpigeon male kind of a way you understand, that would be just plain wierd! But despite the distance she just looks so good that she has to be sketched. I watched her as long as I could and was rewarded at one point with a quick circuit which she seemed to fly just to check that everything was in working order. I perhaps feel anothe peregrine painting coming on...
Anyway, here are some of the sketches from the weekend.
Mike