Carrying Crows and New Zealand Black Frost

Janurary 1st 2010: A new year, a sunny cold day and the floods are visible for miles, surely the River Thame vally will be brimming with wildfowl?

Of course, such optimism is misplaced in Cuddesdon. The floods are enormous, but deserted: 1 Teal the only bird of note, and not a single Snipe.

250 Lapwing is a good count, here seen passing over the floods:

Humerous sighting of the morning was this Carrion Crow, flying high overhead carrying a sweetcorn husk:

Last night there was an intense frost, I wonder if it might be a hoare frost, but have no idea what this means. A quick online search reveals a whole new world of frost - click here for details, if your think you can handle the excitement. I had no idea there were so many different types of frost, New Zealand Black Frost anyone?  Well, whichever type of frost is was, it certainly brought in the birds. Peering out of the back window this morning reveals trees weighed down by the wieght of Fieldfares, there were literally hundreds. I count 300 in the trees behind the garden alone and there are constant flocks of 50 - 100 birds passing overhead: