Finally, a month with reasonable weather.  In comparison to previous months February has been a month drought and it is been nice to see the sun.

At night the clear skies have led to the temperature dropping to below freezing and for the first time in several years even the river has had ice on it.

In this first photograph a pair of male mallards; have to walk to the bank of the river rather than swim.

As a child I can remember the river freezing solid, the ice being so thick that my friends and I actually walked on it.  Now when I think about it with an adult’s perspective I realise how foolhardy we were.  If the ice had broken there would have been little any of us could do if one of us had gone into the water.  We were lucky and we got away with it, my advice to you is to keep off frozen ponds and Rivers.

Moving on along the river I spotted this heron slowly walking along the opposite bank apparently looking for a gap in the thin ice sheet through which it could possibly catch some fish.

I had just photographed in the heron when my attention was drawn to my right by a noise, and I turned to see this swan flying along the river at a low level.

It gave me just enough time to swing my camera up and grab this photograph as it flew by.  As you can see I didn’t quite get the whole the bird in the frame (much to my annoyance) which spoiled what could have been quite a nice photograph.  Still anything is better than nothing but I am still annoyed with myself.

Leaving the river behind, I walked up to the gully.  This is a small wooded area of land were little stream has cut a small steep sided valley into the bank’s.  This time of year is really the only time you can get any real access into it as from late spring onwards the vegetation is so thick and overgrown that you would need a machete to cut a path through it.

This photograph shows a grey squirrel feeding in the leaf litter covering the ground.  I have to say that this particular squirrel had the most striking redhead which the photograph does not do justice to.

Over the years I have seen grey squirrels in many call variations ranging from an albino through to black.

Moving from the ground to the trees and a flurry of movement brings my attention to this long tailed tit.

In the photograph it can be seen pulling lichen from a branch.  It uses this material along with moss and feathers in building its nest.

Higher in the trees a rapid tapping noise draws my attention to this greater spotted woodpecker.  The tapping noise is produced as it taps the bar with its beak as it looks for insects and grubs to eat.

Still on the subject of woodpeckers, how’s this for camouflage?  This is a green woodpecker and if it hadn’t moved I would not have spotted it.  The green woodpecker is the largest of the British woodpeckers, and although fairly common this is only the second one I have that I have seen here at Greenheyes.

Into the sky now, and it’s my old friend the buzzard. 

As usual it is flying tantalisingly overhead, one of these days I’ll catch him on the ground (figuratively speaking that is).

As I worked my way back up to the farmhouse, I disturbed this pair of female pheasants from the undergrowth.

These game birds were obviously not “game” to have their photograph placed on the net.  I could have made them famous. 

Much more cooperative was this robin.  Sat on a tyre on the silage clamp, it posed quite happily while I took this little snapshot of it.  Robin’s seem to be very common this year, and I don’t think I’ve been on many walks recently without seeing at least several of them.

Also quite cooperative, stood on the verge of the footpath was this pied wagtail, if and like the robin’s the pied wagtail has been a very common sight this year.

Having spent the last couple of hours or so on a nice leisurely walk through the countryside, I am suddenly dragged back into the real world by the infernal noise of the sirens of an emergency vehicle.

As I watched, my colleagues sped past the farm heading towards Northwich. 

The vehicle on this occasion was from Crewe which is about 10 miles away from Greenheyes. 

It has 8 minutes to reach a life threatening emergency, for example a heart attack. Coming from Crewe to Northwich (another 5 miles down the road) it will be hard pressed to make it in 20. 

See you next month Andy.

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