Who was the coldest last night?

[Tom]

Last night was the coldest night yet this winter, for us. We had thick ice on the inside of the windows this morning and we have no water :lol: What temperatures did other have?



Just thought this might cheer up robgil, since he's whinging about having man flu :lol: :wink:

 

[Feltwell]

About 10 miles away from me made it onto the BBC news - Shawbury in Shropshire, -12.5c, coldest since 1946.

We have form round here though - England's coldest night on record was at Newport in Shropshire in 1982, -26.1c

Nice and warm inside the house though! I got the boiler fixed on Friday, so just in time.

 

[Flyfisher]

I can't beat that. It was a mere -3.5C on our way home from Cambridge around midnight last night.

 

[Feltwell]

Quite useful for me actually - I'd been meaning to defrost the freezer in our cellar for ages, last night was the ideal opportunity - I just stuck all the food outside the back door in crates!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Very cold in the house, though not as cold as our hotel last night, which actually had me wrapping myself in all the towels and putting all our clothing on the bed (we didn't get in till 3.30 as we were at a wedding and there was nobody about to ask for more bedding, or how to turn heating on)

Anyway, the coldest last night was perhaps this little chap, who I found dead near the chicken enclosure on my return.

Why he died I'm not sure, but I feel very guilty that without me nipping out all the time with bowls of warm water and grain many birds are going hungry and thirsty. The chickens won't set foot on the snow so I'm feeding them in their house.

I'm devoting tomorrow morning to all the birds- they appreciate unfrozen water and food in this sort of weather.

 

[Tom]

Poor little thing

We have lots of feeders out at the moment with nuts and wild bird seed in. We get through bag fulls in the winter!! But I don't mind. It's lovely to see them flying in and out for food. We even had some Fieldfares resident here last winter, which was really nice

 

[MdB]

Anyway, the coldest last night was perhaps this little chap, who I found dead near the chicken enclosure on my return.

What size is your unfortunate chap? It looks a bit like a little owl to me but I'm not sure. A pity either way.

We even had some Fieldfares resident here last winter, which was really nice

We had a fieldfare tucking into the remaining apples on our apple tree (just outside the kitchen window) a few weeks ago. It isn't a bird I can say I've seen before so it took me quite a while to identify it.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Glad others are bird lovers too.

I think it is a little owl MdB - it's around 23cm long. The previous owner made a lot of owl boxes for the spinney, whether they're using them or not is hard to say (I don't like to go there, there's a big family of pheasants in there who don't like to be disturbed) but the noise of these owls is heard most nights - so hauntingly lovely.

After the owls I think my favourites are the long tailed tits who make very spectacular descents on the trees here.

 

[TomW]

Agree with MdB, it's a Little Owl. Probably had a hard time finding anything to eat with the recent weather .

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks Tom. We're overrun with rats. Do they eat them?

 

[MdB]

Thanks Tom. We're overrun with rats. Do they eat them?

Rats are roughly three times heavier than little owls so no, sorry. They like small mammals, beetles and earthworms.

 

[TomW]

Hmm, for rats you may need one of these :twisted: .
http://www.discoverit.co.uk/falconry/europeow.htm

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Awww poor little owl, how sad. They are so cute.
We had -9 in our neck of the woods, but no major disasters.

 

[MdB]

Hmm, for rats you may need one of these :twisted: .
http://www.discoverit.co.uk/falconry/europeow.htm

As you mention that bird, I just have to post this self portrait by Mark from the Screech Owl Sanctuary in Cornwall.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bubo_strix/4130945404/

and the same bird (I think) stuck on my arm. This is Joe, a European Eagle Owl.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Hmm, for rats you may need one of these :twisted: .
http://www.discoverit.co.uk/falconry/europeow.htm

As you mention that bird, I just have to post this self portrait by Mark from the Screech Owl Sanctuary in Cornwall.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bubo_strix/4130945404/

Wow - an amazing picture.

 

[Penners]

Yes, excellent picture. I reckon about 10 minutes in Photoshop...

 

[Penners]

I'm a bit hacked off that I can't join in the game of coldmanship. Well, actually, that's far from the truth - I'm delighted that or little Georgian cottage, despite its cavity-less brick walls, is really pretty cosy. That saves me from chilly toes and earache.

Earache? Yes, you should hear Mrs P when she's "frozen"*....






* Did you know that there are, in fact, only two temperatures? There's "nice and warm" and there's "freezing" (the latter being anything below 25 degC). :roll:

 

[JoceAndChris]

2 cuties in MdB's pic!

And if they have any of those owls going spare - send them along please!

-8 here last night! The snow is around 3 inches deep, very pretty, and it's still snowing. I've just moved the poots back in the house, and am going to move the LFs to a shed on the front lawn. They'll trash the lawn over winter but I've had enough of walking to them, and the poor things have nothing green to eat there.

Beautiful as this is, I hope it's an isolated week of snow.

 

[robgil]

snowing here too , i love it. dont know how colder it is at night but its not been minus anything, our electric heaters are probably clocking up a small fortune on our next bill though.
Same problem here Penners, it's either 'OK' or 'freezing'.

 

[Feltwell]

Our garden has never been more popular with the local wildlife. Fallen bramley apples are proving very popular with the blackbirds, I counted 8 males all under the 1 tree earlier, even more amazing was that they weren't fighting - just shows how many apples I haven't got around to clearing up! We always leave some on the ground for them.

The "sparrow mafia" - we have a large group of sparrows nesting in one of our hedges - are darting here there and everywhere, busy gathering up the seed I put down earlier. I threw a load of dried fruit on the ground earlier, which the robins seem to be appreciating. Wood pigeons and ring doves are queueing for the seed feeder.

Strangely, none seem to be touching the water I put down for them - a couple of old baking tins on the ground, which take about 3-4 hours to freeze over.

Strange discovery of the day - whilst running some pipes under the attic stairs through a normally sealed up void, I've discovered the skeletal remains of a small bird. How the hell it got in there I don't know - this void is right in the middle of the house, definitely no access to the outside. All I can think is it either got trapped when the house was being built or it somehow got in there when this void has been opened up in the past to run pipes & cables through.