Hundreds of geese flew over our garden this morning. They fly in from countries in the far north and east to spend winters in our warm estuaries here on the west coast of northern England. It’s an amazing sight to see them fly in V formations. The sound of them honking and calling to each other reminds me that cold weather on the way.
The geese feed on the mud flats and stubble fields around Morecambe Bay. If you can’t get to see them in the wild the RSPB nature reserves are well worth a visit this winter. They feed wild birds and have hides where you can get up quite close to view them. If you are interested in Photographing Birds in winter then have a look at this easy to follow guide by Mark Hamblin on the Nature TTL website.
So the cold weather is coming. We’ve had a couple of light early morning frosts already this month but nothing to match December 2010 when everything froze.
The Pond froze… The Oak trees froze.
Even the air seemed to freeze.
And of course my lovely little Apple Tree froze too. The Bramley Apple usually hangs on to a few fruits well into December.
From a distance the apples look like Christmas baubles.
Our garden birds are making good use of a fruity meal. Most of the apples have holes where the birds have pecked away the juicy flesh.
We’ve had plenty of fruit from the garden and I like to leave some specifically for our wild creatures. I’m leaving peanuts, sunflower seeds and fresh water every day plus fat balls and scraps of bacon fat whenever I can.
I’m joining in with Tree Following this month on Lucy’s Loose and Leafy Blog. If you’d like to see what’s happening elsewhere in the tree world then just pop along for a quick read. Gillian 🙂
I love your frosty apple tree pictures. Beautiful to look at from the window. So far we have just had light frosts here but goodness knows what’ s to come.
Thanks Liz. We are all in for a good dose of cold weather sooner or later I think! It looks beautiful but I’m always happy to get back inside to a roaring fire.
what an amazing sight to have the apples like that, they really do look like Christmas baubles.
I love watching (and hearing) the geese come in….
Thanks for your comment Juliet. There’s something special about huge flocks of geese arriving isn’t there?
What a beautiful winter wonderland Tree Following post, Gillian. I’m jealous (in a nice way!) of your geese. I wonder if you are at all near Arnside, a place I love (but don’t get to visit often).
Thanks for your lovely comment Caroline. Arnside is probably about an hours drive from here. We visited Leighton Moss (home for Autumn Watch this year) recently and saw murmurations of starlings at dusk which was fantastic. I’ve heard that there are several wildlife reserves in the vicinity. Which is your favourite spot?
Lovely photos. I don’t know how I have been missing your posts – I think you must have dropped off my reader for a while. Those oak trees look stunning.
Good to hear from you! Thanks very much for your lovely comments Annette.