Monday 27 February 2017
Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

Strange ice formation, Christophstal February 2017

This mysterious ice formation appeared overnight in our bird bath. It's really difficult to see how this could have formed naturally. There are no overhangs or icicles that could have fallen in. It wasn't even particularly cold last night, so a frozen splash is unlikely. My best theory is that the ice formed on a spider web thread. There are a couple of problems with that theory - spiders aren't active at the moment and the ice isn't pointing to a structure that the web thread might have attached to.

I took photos from all angles in the hope that it might yield some clues, but it didn't.

**Update** Peter found this website with an explanation of the ice phenomenon! Not entirely uncommon apparently.

Saturday 25 February 2017

The snow has melted just enough to reveal the snowdrops already flowering.

Carrion crow, Christophstal February 2017

Carrion crow, Christophstal February 2017

Snowdrops, Christophstal February 2017

Snowdrops, Christophstal February 2017

Sunday 19 February 2017

Like yesterday, there was a lot of bird activity in the garden today. Yesterday we recorded 18 bird species, today we only had 16, but that included this goldfinch. We don't often see goldfinches in the garden and they're extremely rare visitors to us in winter.

A pair of long-tailed tits have also been visiting a lot lately.

Goldfinch, Christophstal February 2017

Goldfinch, Christophstal February 2017

Goldfinch, Christophstal February 2017

Goldfinch, Christophstal February 2017

Long-tailed tit, Christophstal February 2017

Long-tailed tit, Christophstal February 2017

Saturday 18 February 2017
Male siskin, Christophstal February 2017

Male siskin, Christophstal February 2017

Female siskin, Christophstal February 2017

Female siskin, Christophstal February 2017

Hawfinch, Christophstal February 2017

Hawfinch, Christophstal February 2017

Great spotted woodpecker, Christophstal February 2017

Great spotted woodpecker, Christophstal February 2017

Crows, Christophstal February 2017

Crows, Christophstal February 2017

It's been a few weeks since we updated our diary. There didn't seem to be any time to observe the garden or, when we did, nothing interesting happened.

The weather has warmed up considerably over the last few days and the birds have started behaving as if spring is coming. This morning there were several hundred hawfinches flying around the valley. They've nearly exhausted the supply of hornbeam seeds in the hornbeam trees and are now spending more time on the ground trying to find the seeds they dropped earlier in the winter. They've also been visiting our sunflower seeds.

There were a fair number of siskins and bramblings around too.

We had a quick walk around the garden earlier this week and we could see oxslips and snowdrops starting to poke through the snow.