Friday 9th January, 2015.
I have been stalking clouds again this week. The official sunrise time on Sunday was 08-37 (sunset 16-10) although we don't see the sun until around 11-00 when it finally emerges above the North Barrule ridge. When I first looked out of the windows the clouds were too low to catch any colour. I lost interest and only remembered to look again when it was too late.
The only semi-distant view that we have from the house is to the north north east where we can see the sky almost down to the horizon.
Early view of the sunrise looking north north east.
The view in all other directions is blocked by the hills and we can only see the sky more or less directly overhead. This enables clouds to creep up on us unnoticed and once or twice some drops of rain have blown over Skyhill before the clouds were visible from our garden.
The clouds above North Barrule reflect almost all the bright colour of our sunrises and the angle between the rising sun and the clouds appears to be the vital factor - apart from the basic requirement of the right amount of broken cloud. The higher clouds light up first - starting as candyfloss pink and then changing to an orangey pink and finally gold.
Another recent topic of interest has been the customers at the saucer of bird cheese. The robins are still fighting over the treat and I tried to get photograph but without success. The light isn't good enough to take action shots. The robins pay such fleeting visits to the plate of cheese that it is hard to time the photograph. Sometimes they seem to take off before they have even landed.
Soon after taking that photo, a less welcome guest arrived to have a snack. I feel sorry for the long-tails because they have such a bad reputation. They may steal "our" food and spread diseases - but not to the same extent that other humans do - and I think they are over-demonised.
But out of consideration for the birds, and our more sensible and less long-tail tolerant neighbours, we have stopped leaving the cheese at ground level. The cheese is now put up in the mesh bowl at the top of the feeder, better for the birds but not so good for photographs.
I have tied back one of the small branches on the Kowhai tree which shelters the bird feeder from passing sparrowhawks - so that I get a better view of the little birds through the kitchen window. It has been too windy to get a good photo this week.
While I was taking that photo of the feeders I saw a wren in the flower bed below. It disappeared before I was able to detach the camera from the tripod but I noticed someone throwing leaves in the air. It was a song thrush indulging in some typically blackbird-like behaviour.
Great tits have been spotted going into nest box every few days - They are not thinking about nest building yet and just seem to be checking the box for possible defects.
It may be my imagination but I think there is more twittering going on in the garden. Excitement seems to be building up in the feathered community. Perhaps there are rumours of spring. I wonder whether they are already aware of the slightly longer daylight hours at this time of year or whether they notice the changing height of the sun above the horizon. Temperature can't be a factor because the great tits were looking at the box on Sunday morning when there was frost on the ground.
We have been out for two short walks. On Saturday we just walked up the glen. It was about two o'clock and the road which follows the river was already in deep shade but occasionally the sun came out and lit up the side of the glen above us.
At the end of the tarred road we found a patch of winter heliotrope flowering under the hedge . . . the first wild flowers of the year.
On Tuesday morning we walked up through Skyhill plantation. I hoped to get a photo of Ramsey, sparkling in the winter sunshine but the sunlight was filtered through light clouds.
I climbed into the top paddock to take a photo of the horses and the view framed by an old stone wall and the silhouette of hawthorn twigs.
Then I zoomed in on the centre of the town behind the golf course. The tide must have been high because there was a ship approaching the entrance to the harbour.
We continued our walk to the view site at the top of the hill and this time I got lucky. A patch of sunlight briefly lit up the ruined buildings on the old upland farm, the Neary.
On Tuesday afternoon I was working on the hedge again. I wanted to cut enough holly to take another full load out to recycling facility and I exposed a derelict nest in the hedge about six feet from the ground. I checked photos on the internet but I am still not certain whether it is a blackbird or song thrush nest. They are very similar. Blackbird nests are slightly larger (our nest has an internal diameter of about 4 inches/10cms at the rim and is about 4 inches deep).
Our nest is in a state of decomposition - what an estate agent would describe as "in need of renovation". Now that my hedge cutting had exposed it to the elements, there was no chance of it being renovated, so I brought it inside to show Tim before it was blown away in the severe gales forecast for the next day.
One of the joys of researching on the internet is coming across unexpected gems in various blogs and websites. There is an interesting illustrated comparison of song thrush and blackbird nests in the post published on 9 July 2014 on a blog called "The Thrifty Magpie's Nest". And I was particularly impressed by the bird photography on Charlie Fleming's site "Wildlife in a Suburban Garden". This video http://www.arkive.org/song-thrush/turdus-philomelos/video-09a.html shows a song thrush building her nest. I was interested to see how she pressed her body into the nest, turning to mould the regular the cup shape.
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