What's outside

I believe one of the chapels in the Gaiman area (I’ve forgotten which) actually imported timber from the UK/Europe but another in Esquel/Trevelin (again I’ve forgotten which) used alerce wood from the foothills of the Andes (the alerce tree apparently is related to the cypress family and the beautiful timber was much used in the area - so much so that one of the reasons for creating the Los Alerces National Park was to preserve the trees there)

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@ramblingjohn help! Here we had frost on the grass yesterday a.m. But it melted quickly. Little snow today but thinly spread, lots of green on lawn. BUT no, no birds.! Dim! Zero! Others round here have commented the same! North, east and south of us, weather is much worse! Only smallish islands to west! So, no eagle or even buzzard on roof! WHY have all our small birds gone and WHERE?
@sharonmonks are you on Isla? Seen any flocks of finches or tits?

And now a few more penguins…

Young one just finishing its moult:

A couple more young ones:

A beachful…

And finally …


Sorry, I couldn’t resist! :slight_smile:

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More :heart_decoration: :heart:

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We got to sing in that chapel! Really lovely.

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Mae hi’n bwrw eira yma yng Ngogledd Northumberland heddiw. It’s snowing in North Northumberland today. Anyone for tea?

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One tit flew through the snow which is now falling to eat from our fat candle this morning and a robin was hopping about. Rest of birds still missing!

Our garden has been so bust with birds over this cold snap…





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Oh no! It is usual for more birds to come to gardens in bad weather - not less. I’d have thought with the reputation your garden has with the birds up there, there would be a queue???

The bad weather - tywydd garw - brought in a new one for our garden today.
Redwing - Coch Dan-Aden. Attracted by the ivy.

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Yes we are very worried. The one tit was very fluffed up and not at all healthy looking. The robin was nowhere near the food. We usually have flocks. We had goldfinches and bullfinches as well as chaffinches only a week or so ago. Tits mainly great tits. Now … near enough none!

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Do you have near neighbours? I’m wondering if, because of the bad weather, more people are putting food out & they’ve been tempted elsewhere?
Wishful thinking I know.

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Sadly, the neighbours who feed the birds have all told us theirs have vanished too!

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I should go to the woods and fill bird feeders (sadly for now the car is covered in snow and going no where),

cheers J.P.

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Perhaps bird flu might have something to do with this as well as the cold weather: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-43245447

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Forgot to add that there are a lot fewer birds in my garden as well. Admittedly, I’d been away for a couple of weeks, but peanut feeder, one seed feeder and the fat ball feeder were still half full when I got back last weekend

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Two reasons to doubt this:-

  • I have heard of no bird flu in west of Scotland this year
  • One day we had our usual flocks, the next none and virtually none since. Just one collared dove this morning.
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I really hope your birds come back! I cherish my garden birds so much, I can’t imagine them suddenly not being there. Their presence feeds my soul. Could there be a predator? Could the unusually harsh weather be to blame?

This link may be usefull…

So how has the harsh weather affected you? We have had gale force winds and freezing rain here. We’ve lost a garden gate, a car roof box, a shed window and our wheelie bin ended up in the river. This is how our car looks today…

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  1. Not unless the buzzard or sparrowhawk was willing to wait all day out of our sight but in plain view of our back garden.
  2. The weather… well, I don’t think birds can read or watch TV. The first day of disappearance we had frost at first which thawed quickly and thereafter an OK day. The snow arrived next day, but was not as heavy as earlier in the year when our birds brought their friends to our free buffet!! Now it is quite thick out back but not all that cold, so thawing fast. Tomorrow will be… diddorol!
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There is plenty of lying snow here and it is still snowing this morning.We are still having plenty of birds visiting the garden for food although there are fewer tits and other smaller varieties. Starlings - Drudwy, blackbirds - Mwyalchen, and this thrush - Bronfraith, are frequent visitors. …Thanks to Iolo for the Welsh names!

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Strangely, it’s much the same here right down in the south of Cymru. We have lots of feeders and usually a garden full of birds, but the last few days have been worryingly quiet. We cleared the snow from the bird bath a few times and filled it with warm water - once a robin came straight down to drink, but apart from that, we’ve hardly seen any of them.

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