Weather- January 2010

[Maggi Young]

Eeeeuuuwww! Simon, too much information! 

About 12-15cms of snow here in sunny Aberdeen .....  it's around 2 degrees C now and in the last few days we've gone down to minus 6 and all the way up to 9 !

[Sinchets]

We have more snow on the way too starting tomorrow with expected lows of -12C, but this is certainly progress compared to last week  
PS as of 4:30pm we have our water back - toilet duly flushed

[cohan]

simon, congrats on getting water back--thats a long time to go without!

our forecast highs for the next 7 days range from -3 to -11, and lows from -13 to -20--all basically normal for this time of year- -5/-19 is the 'normal'..
a couple more cm sometime today/tomorrow...
days rapidly getting longer--we are already nearly 9hours of daylight, up from whatever the dismal low was--7.5?

[Sinchets]

Sounds like here, Cohan. We will actually be above zero tomorrow with the possiblity of rain, then back down to possible -12 to -15C with snow for a week. It really will have been a strange January with all these thaws.

[arilnut]

Hello friends. Well everything is under a 5 inch blanket again. It snowed Thursday night through
Friday. Just cleared the path to my pickup.

John B     arilnut

snow1
snow2
snow3

[Ragged Robin]

Just to cheer everyone up a little light entertainment on how to deal with snow

Follow the link to what I recorded today in the Alps......

[tonyg]

Lovely Robin   and groovy music!

You could make a career in wildlife films from the mountains

[Ragged Robin]

Glad you enjoyed it Tony - 18cm of snow fell overnight and no hold ups in the quest to find food  

[Armin]

Robin,
excellent movie. Lovely birds in snow with music
What is the title and interpret of the song?

[Ragged Robin]

Armin, the song is called 'Shetland' and is part of iMovie free sound files which I used to edit the shots to - the birds were moving so quickly in the snow in their search for food so I tried out my camera's video setting for the first time and I'm pleased you enjoyed the result  - Can you tell me about the Finch in the end shot - it has only appeared this time in the snowy weather and was very shy?

[Maggi Young]

I think the last finch was a female Hawfinch, Robin.... they are very shy. Was it quite chunky in size compared to  say, the greenfinchs?

[Armin]

Robin,
thanks for the title. Yes I enjoyed your movie.

In the last sequence it is a Hawfinch (german Kernbeißer) (Coccothraustes coccothraustes).
A lovely bird with a powerful bill, hidden living in the tops of old deciduous trees, rarely seen but not endangered, much larger then any other European finch specis.

[Ragged Robin]

I think the last finch was a female Hawfinch, Robin.... they are very shy. Was it quite chunky in size compared to  say, the greenfinchs?

Yes Maggi, chunky and at least double or triple the size of Siskins here I'd say, it was quite stunning sitting in the lower branches of the tree - taken on the end of zoom and I didn't dare breathe 
Thanks for your ID - interesting what how the weather brings out all sorts not normally seen.

[Ragged Robin]

Robin,
thanks for the title. Yes I enjoyed your movie.

In the last sequence it is a Hawfinch (german Kernbeißer) (Coccothraustes coccothraustes).
A lovely bird with a powerful bill, hidden living in the tops of old deciduous trees, rarely seen but not endangered, much larger then any other European finch specis.

Armin thanks for your Hawfinch ID - I'm trying to pronounce it in German  - I hope it comes again so I can be prepared next time, do they come into your garden when the weather is tough?

[Armin]

Robin,
regrettable no Hawfinch visited my feeding station. I suppose it is too far away from woodside.

Regular visitors are sparrows, tree sparrows, robins, black birds, greenfinches, chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, sparrow hawk, magpies, and jays.
Rarely visitors are dunnocks, bramblings, marsh tits, long tailed tits, lesser spotted woodpecker, greater spotted woodpecker and grey-faced woodpecker.
This year I'm missing bullfinches and goldfinches. Don't know why.