Brass Monkeys

In a journey surely unparallelled since Frodo took THE ring to Mordor, I made the 10 mile journey to Big Waters (in only 2 hours 15 minutes) for a BBC news film piece on birds and the wintery weather. There is a bit of snow on the roads but not really enough to cause the traffic chaos. Obviously though, most drivers are snow-blinded and unable to see things such as red traffic lights, so I suppose I will have to excuse them.

Big Waters looked lovely in the snow but on arrival there was a distinct lack of birds. No open water at all and just a few common gulls sitting on the ice, with the odd crow and rook for company. Stock doves on the wires to the north caught the eye. Tracks across the snow suggested an otter but I wasn't going to risk looking much closer!

A different matter when you get to the feeding station, which was really busy especially with blackbirds, chaffinch and robins. Great stuff and many of those birds will star in the news piece, which is all about giving the "bords" a bit of a hand by feeding them your left over cheese, rotten apples and anything else you couldn't stuff down your face during the festive season (which seems ages ago even though I have only been back at work two days).

We eventually got the filming finished and all the guys in the hide, including Alan J (who I hadn't seen for a bit) may also make a cameo! The atmosphere in there was great and I enjoyed the lively banter, reminding me again why its so good to get out and about. Wish more of my colleagues would do the same!

Highlight was to see up to 16 tree sparrow here, taking advantage of the food. I also spotted reed bunting, yellowhammer, dunnock and wren and this is obviously a boon to moorhen too as there were six as a maximum count. I missed the brambling though! Just as the crew were "shooting" the pond to illustrate the impact of the ice, a small group of 16 greylag arrived plus a pair of mallard, the only wildfowl apart from a single lapwing flyover and four tufted duck that came in, landed and took off straight away!

I couldnt believe it when I had to dig my car out of the light snow in the car park, but it was going nowhere fast. Hope everyone else got away alright!

On the way back I was surprised by an oystercatcher flying low over the car near Weetslade, an absoloutely stunning image against the background whiteness.

Apparently, according to my excited Mum, the film was aired at lunchtime (but is on the Beeb again tonight). I managed to get something in about the need for a wildfowling ban as well! Hope they dont edit that bit out!