Footprints in the snow

The snow has almost gone, hereabouts.

One of the delights of a fresh snowfall is the sudden appearance of animal tracks, that reveal just how much activity is going on in a seemingly empty winter landscape. Here are a few from earlier this week.

A field mouse, hopping from top to bottom of the picture - you can see the line where it dragged its long tail in the snow.

A grey squirrel, with those prominent claws used for climbing

A moorhen, with that little sideways-facing spur at the back of its foot

A grey partridge. The line between the footprints is where the claw on the long central toe has dragged through the deep snow

A pheasant - similar to a partridge but larger, with a longer stride

A domestic goose - big webbed feet

Mallard duck, webbed-feet turned inwards as it waddled

The ubiquitous rabbit. Fore-feet are placed one in front of the other when they lands, then longer, larger back feet overtake them before they land.

The goose that thinks it's a duck...

We met this confused greylag when we were out walking in Weardale this afternoon. It seemed to think that it was a parent of these mallard ducklings and attacked anything that came near them, including me and someone's dogs that got curious about the infant mallards. The mother mallard seemed perfectly happy with this interspecific child-minding service and led the way, with the goose bringing up the rear.

Nice weather for ducks....

While we were sheltering under our umbrellas recently, dodging the puddles, someone remarked that it was 'nice weather for ducks'.

Which reminded me of this photo that I took several years ago in the car park of the Sage concert hall in Gateshead. These ducklings were about as far removed from their natural element as it was possible to be.

The mallard duck had nested on waste ground on the far side of the car park and led her ducklings all the way across. This kerb presented a bit of a challenge but with a lot of quacking from her and some help for anxious spectators they eventually overcame it. Then she led them down a steep bank, across another car park, down another steep bank and across a road, across a stretch of quayside and into the river Tyne. 

In comparison, my journey into work through today's floods this morning should be a doddle! 

A Glass Half-full kind of Summer....

.... a glass half-full of rainwater, that is.


I should be sitting in the garden sipping chilled wine now, not watching rain running down the window.

And this rain-spattered drone fly should be hovering in a shaft of sunlight. Still, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and .....

..... these house martins have plenty of mud available for nest construction. They were collecting mud around this puddle near Tunstall reservoir in Weardale yesterday. Seems very late to be building nests - I wonder if they were collecting it for nest repair?

Perfect weather for slugs too. I shudder to think what they are doing to my garden, but this one was demolishing a buttercup flower in the road verge.

Good weather for fungal growth too. These brackets were on a dead branch in Backstone Bank wood near Wolsingham.

And good weather for ducks, like this mallard surrounded by rain-bejewelled grasses.

And the raindrops do make an attractive pattern in the shallow water around the edge of Tunstall reservoir.


Accentuate the positive, as the song says....

Early Brood

Seen on the Ouseburn just downstream from Byker Bridge in Newcastle this lunchtime. Mother mallard must have started nesting at the end of January!

When you're this young the world is an adventure playground....