After heavy snow on Saturday and Sunday, the temperature went down to -16C last night. It is very busy at the bird table.

While clearing our paths, we measured the snow on top of the car. The ruler shows 34cm, but we removed about 5cm on Friday - so the real snowfall this weekend is closer to 40cm.

It snowed heavily all day today. At dusk we estimate between 20 and 30cm had settled on the ground.

The bird table was busy, but nothing unusual came. We saw the kingfisher at the pond again, but he gave up there as it is completely iced-over again. He's got some tough days ahead.

We went for a run through the forest down the valley to the Friedrichstal fishponds. The deep snow was really hard work and ours were the only tracks for most of the route.

We had a nice surprise this morning. There had been a lot of snow overnight and the scene was transformed.

The kingfisher visited the pond several times today. He was behaving very strangely and kept hovering over the same position in the water. He's not very good at hovering to be honest - he looks hungry to me and I didn't see him catch anything.

Despite challenging lighting conditions, I attempted a few BIF (bird-in-flight) shots which you can see composited here.

We saw the Great White Egret again today by the fishponds. The picture is taken wide-angle on my camera phone, so it looks like it's a very long way away.

Two plumed prominent moths from eggs found on the field maple in the garden back in February finally emerged this evening - both on the same day. It is around the right time for them to be flying but perhaps a little late. The only adult I have seen here previously was flying in October. 

It started to snow a little more after lunch and suddenly we saw a flock of hawfinches come in to land on the hornbeams. There must have been at least 20 and they were really enjoying the hornbeam seeds. There are 12 in the photo - I found another one after I'd added the arrows. There may be even more.

The kingfisher was at the pond for a long time and more than once today.

We found a primula in the garden, which had just flowered! This is not a great photo but you can see the leaves at the bottom. It could be elatior, but I will have another look in spring.

On the way into town, we saw a crow with some white feathers on its wings. He stood out against the hillside. On the way back, we counted the steps down into the valley and came up with 277. Later, on our usual walk around the valley, we saw how the tree-felling has really made a difference at the fishponds. There were some different fungi along the way.  

The Great Egret is back at the fishponds today. It has been windy and wet, but we were very pleased to see a handsome bullfinch at the bird table at lunchtime.

The pond froze over for the first time today and we had a little more snow.

On a run, we took a photo of this bur on a spruce in the valley. They are caused when the tree becomes stressed, either by injury or disease - for example, through a virus or a fungus.

We walked into town to see the Freudenstadt Christmas Market and on the way up we noticed the snow line clearly showing on the trees above the house. It did snow a little in the valley but didn't settle.

This gadwall on the pond was a new sighting for us and the 51st species on the list of birds we have seen from the house.

We went to a meeting at the Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe about Pyraloid moths and had time beforehand for a visit to the Christmas Market. This is a very nice one and worth a visit.

We went for a run down the valley and spotted a frost fungus on a twig. This is a rare ice formation which occurs when freezing water is pushed out of pores in rotting wood forming fine filaments of ice which look like fungal fibres.

This is a picture from January 2014.