Siskin on the garden feeder

All quiet at the moment but a few Siskin have started to visit the garden feeder.

Siskin

Great Grey Shrike - Farley Moor

The Farley bird reappeared today and it sound like the bird was also present at Wragg's Quarry so it confirms the two bird theory.

Great Grey Shrike

Brambling Bent Lane

Still struggling to get a decent photo although I think the flock is now over 400.

Brambling

Common Buzzard

At least 5 Common Buzzard over the house today, nice to see some blue sky!

Common Buzzard

Brown Rat - Whitworth Park

Not everyone's favourite but James came across this Brown Rat in the Whitworth Park this afternoon.

Brown Rat

More moths

The mild temperature last night (max 11 min 8) produced good moth numbers - for December
8 December Moths
6 Mottled Umber
1 Scarce Umber
1 Chestnut

Pink-footed Geese - Beeley Moor

It was snowing hard early this morning with patches of low cloud, A skein of about 200 Pink-footed Geese emerged from the mist calling loudly but just as quickly disappeared heading towards the Lincolnshire coast.

Pink-footed Geese

Kingfisher - Whitworth Park, Darley Dale

Came across this Kingfisher on the pond at the Whitworth, always a great bird to see. Hopefully it will stay around for a while.

Kingfisher

Grey Partridge - Beeley Moor

A covey of 6 Grey Partridge on the edge of Beeley Moor showed well this morning. 
The Grey Partridge has suffered a massive decline in the last decade so it was great to see this group happily feeding (photo James Butler).

Grey Partridge

Raven - Beeley Moor

These 3 Raven were the highlight of this mornings visit to Beeley.

Raven

First snow of the winter

First of the winter snow last night continued on and off during the day. There was a good 2 inches on Beeley Moor but not much in the valleys. No birds but it looked good.

Beeley Moor in the snow

Grey Heron - Chatsworth

Flying out of the shadows in to the sunlight, this photo was taken by my son James.

Grey Heron

Still a few moths flying

Despite a maximum temperature of 4 Centigrade and a minimum close to zero there are still a few moths around and I caught two Mottled Umber, Winter Moth and 2 Chestnut last night. 
The Winter Moth shows the darker hind wing which is a useful feature to separate it from the Northern Winter Moths taken earlier in November.

Winter Moth