Happy New Year!

I'm experimenting with a new blog, but I'm going to keep this going for now. The snowy weather has kept me fairly local. On Christmas Day, I had a great walk down Rivelin Valley, and although it wasn't technically a white Christmas, the lying snow made everything look fantastically pretty. One of the highlights of the day was a sighting of a dipper.

Yesterday was my first outing beyond the local area: Old Moor on public transport. Cold and icy, but quite a lot to see: finches: bull, green, chaff; tits: great and blue; song thrush, tufted duck, goosander, cormorant, heron, wigeon, lapwing, reed bunting (?) and my top viewing; barn owls - one at the far end of Wath Ings, another whilst sitting eating a sandwich, from the window of Gannets Cafe!

Today, I ventured out after more snow last night, down the slippery slope, to the valley. No treats in the bird world, but another flying wonder: a close-up view of a Yorkshire air ambulance helicopter . It circled several times, and got quite low, but eventually flew off without landing or lowering a winch, so I could only assume the problem was sorted out from the ground.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30269206@N02/4240478721/