Turns out work was shut anyways so I didn't need to risk getting stuck. So a whole day to play with an endless Snowy opportunities to take advantage of. Well no not really. By 8.30am I had my hide strategically place out in the garden a wooden fork placed and baited waiting for the resident Robins to land on. 9.45am cold and my lens cover with about 3 inches of snow led atop it I admitted defeat. Not one Robin coming anywhere near my fork.
The snow continued to fall well into the afternoon, and a walk up the river & village to Grandads to clear is path resulted in very little, the usual Little Egret and Little Grebes the only birds to face the blizzard. All of the feeding stations remain empty, I guess the resident Blue Tits where hid out of the cold wind.
By around 3pm the snow abated and I was straight out with the camera, the light starting to fade fast so I left the big lens in doors and hoped for some crisp white landscape shots. I did a full circuit of the River and its branches, the flooded water meadows giving some wildlife relief for the day. 3 Snipe & 3 Lapwing brought first patch ticks for the year, and an abundance of Grey Wagtail seemed to appear every 100 yards or so. I counted 9 in total during my walk.
So walk done and temperature starting to plummet I returned to the warmth of the open fire, and battened down the hatches for the night. Not the snow day I had dreamed of with Christmas Card image opportunities coming out of every corner, but a Snow day none the less.
