Hollow Lanes

Gilbert White, writing in 'The Natural History of Selbourne' describes 'two hollow lanes' which 'are, by the traffic of ages, and the fretting of water, worn down...so that they look more like water-courses than roads. In places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen feet beneath the level of the fields'.
'These rugged gloomy scenes affright the ladies when they peep down into them from the paths above, and make timid horsemen shudder when they ride along them; but delight the naturalist with their various botany, and particularly with their filices with which they abound.'
This hollow lane (from Kearsney up to Scotland Common) must have been used for hundreds of years, the base wearing lower and lower over the ages. It is, of course, 'abounded by filices' or ferns.
Water levels in the valleys are high, and the Stour burst its banks, after the rain and snow.
An early flower shows inconspicuously on Butchers Broom,
and the Stodmarsh flock of Lesser Redpolls, Siskins and Goldfinches has grown to some 40-odd in number .

Tom Tit

Throstle (a one-man crusade)

The NW Nature Nut has asked what a Throstle is - and yes, it is indeed a Song Thrush. But Throstle is a good name and I'll try to use it in future. Many good country names have been lost as the world becomes homogenous.....the bird was also known as a Dirsh, Drush, Mavis, Thirstle, Whistling Dick, Trush Dush and Throggie, depending on where in England you were.
Rather less inventive, it was apparently known as Grey Bird in Sussex and the south west. I owe this information to All the Birds of the Air by Francesca Greenoak.

Hedge Mumruffin

Ouzel Hen (per Shakespeare in Midsummer Night's Dream)

On another matter, it's a conundrum that Dover (like most ports, a bit of a dump) can look quite beautiful at times. Blue skies help, I suppose.

Seek and ye shall find

The golf course was closed because of the (dusting of) snow and the (quite) low temperatures, so a walk across the tundrous wastes was quieter than usual.
Reading a blog from another place, about Juniper bushes on the North Downs, I wondered if there were any near here. Sure enough, an area at the top of the course yielded up a patch of about 40 - whether natural or planted I don't know.
Given the exposed position it's not surprising that they are low-growing specimens and not the proud erect types that may be seen elsewhere.
Nearby the large cliff fall could be seen, with more planks of wood being washed up, due to some quirk of the wind and tide.

On the bird front there was little around - a couple of skylarks over the stubble and a few gannets and auks flying over sea.
In the garden there has been an arrival of greenfinches and great tits, and I got a shot of a Treecreeper at work.

Oi, who's nicked me car?

Oh, there it is, under a pile of snow in Bristol.

Best place for it - it doesn't like slippery roads.

Can't compete

The small amount of snow that landed on East Kent looked pathetic in comparison to the depths dumped on Surrey and London (note to readers in other countries - all things are relative and we don't see proper snow very often).

It is, by the way, Groundhog Day (or Candlemas Day in English), and as we did not see our shadows it could be that we'll soon see the end of winter:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.

This is posted as a matter of record only, and not a formal prediction. Thanks to Rambling Woods for the info.
Snow ploughs need not attend.

Stour Valley

Deceptive signs of early spring at Stodmarsh - catkins trembling against the blue sky. The pools were, however, frozen.
I was introduced to the ramp rats who were there in force, looking for a reported Pied-Billed Grebe, and within half an hour they had provided me with two lifers - a Mealy Redpoll which dangled obligingly above a footpath with Lesser Redpolls and Siskins, and a Jack Snipe which flushed alongside a dyke.
Much better photos of the Mealy are posted on the KOS Stodmarsh site.
A party of about 20 Long-Tailed Tits looked incongruous on the water-side reeds (pretending to be Bearded or Penduline?)......
...but the only grebes were Great-Crested or Little.Over the reed beds four Marsh Harriers mobbed a Common Buzzard, and later over Grove a pair of harriers courted noisily, the male clearly smaller than the female.

Bleak House

A cracking start to the February Bird Count, as a Sparrowhawk drifted past the window as I opened the curtains, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker attacked the suet feeder as I prepared breakfast.
A party of about eight Long-tailed Tits quickly followed, taking a few pecks and then moving on.
The wind is hitting the house, coming off the channel on its way from a chilly eastern Europe, so a day of gardening is in order, moving the compost heap onto the flower beds which should provide good pickings for the ground-feeding birds.

The forecastsnow is expected to arrive during Monday, so instead of not being able to get to work, it more likely that I'll be stuck at work.