Power

The snow vanished with the heavy rain overnight, and although it was undoubtedly warmer than it has been in the previous week, there was a blasting, chilling wind all day.

This was taken from Jack Scout after we had been for a Sunday afternoon coffee at Wolfhouse. The sun popped out of the cloud for a few minutes before setting. The view is across Morecambe Bay towards the Irish Sea. With watering eyes I could not see the offshore wind turbines dwarfed by the enormity of the sun.

Thank you for all the stars and hearts for yesterday's blip of a shy Gus. It was a rare opportunity to steal a photograph of him. This morning he was back to his usual habit of slinking up to me as soon as I stopped and raised the camera.

I did the RSPB Garden Birdwatch this morning. It was a quieter hour than I have had most years. Even the temptation of mealworms did not attract much interest. There were 14 species in all, but none of the more unusual garden birds that I have seen most years: no reed buntings, blackcaps or tree sparrows. Plenty of the regulars such as blackbirds, though even they were in smaller numbers than usual. Is it simply that so many people in the village are feeding their garden birds now that there are only so many birds to go round? Or did I just pick a quieter hour by chance? The advantage of mass participation surveys like this is that chance variation is evened out, and real trends in species fortunes are revealed. The annual garden bird surveys have helped to show the decline in house sparrows throughout the country. So I was pleased with my peak count of 12 house sparrows this morning.