Cheviot

9 February 2014

West Yorkshire/Peak District

An unusual visitor; a male bullfinch pecks around below the bird feeders which are busy with siskins and tits.

Our snowdrops by the hedge are coming into flower; my mum's, which I drew the other day, had reached this point a couple of weeks ago.

We've escaped the floods and near hurricane winds that they've experienced in other parts of the country but heavy rain on waterlogged soil has resulted in temporary flashes on some fields and a few roads have been reduced to single lanes by extra large puddles.

Winter Moth

I was surprised to see a small moth, about an inch wide, attracted to the glass panel in our back door one evening last week. It was greyish light brown with no distinct markings, unfortunately I've had to draw it from memory because by the time I'd returned with my camera it had flown but it was probably the winter moth, Operophtera brumata.