9th January - frost -4C last night. Mostly sunny, light W, 3C

Not restricted to Spring, but early Catkins are always a nice early sign of things to come - we hope, photo taken at Shawell.

Willey; morning

This morning three Mistle Thrushes and a couple of Fieldfares were around the church Yew trees - very few berries though.  Four Greenfinch were in attendance too. A Raven was calling over the fields to the west and a Buzzard flew over being hassled by Jackdaws.  Three Stock Doves were at the feed station again.

Following the trend theme, here are some data for the the Collared Dove in the parish, we have about 10 around the village at the moment, our peak winter count was 30 some years ago.

Records per year, then records per month.

I visited at farm near Houghton-on-the-Hill,, Leics today that had 27 Collared Doves around the cattle feeding area, no doubt a few more there too.