Yes the main story is the weather. Cold again and feeling damp although no rain. At least the birds at Hardwick Park gave a little relief. A robin started singing within .5m of me while I was taking photo's. Even turning my body & camera towards it, the robin did not move. Also saw a wren, a number of blue tits, various other species and a few tufted ducks and a great crested grebe.

Working on updating web site, mainly Contact information. After constant spam email's, I have removed Contact Form and introduced instead a link to uses email software. Hopefully this should stop a lot of spam email's.

Pleasant weather this morning. A bit fresh with a bit of a breeze but the heat from the sunny skies made a nice morning. Expecting sheep and a herd of cows now accommodate East Park, so those walking dogs need to be careful.

Photo: East Park.

Sometime since its last visit, but the sparrow-hawk returned to the garden this afternoon. Patiently stayed on a perch for a good 20 minutes before flying off to a potential predation.

We are very lucky still due to the number of finches still flying into the garden, especially brambling's and siskin's. Never had these numbers and flying in since the start of 2024.

Why is it the weathermen and weather app says the local area weather is above average, you walk out and reality is it's cold, breezy, grey and damp. Well, today is beyond the moody phase.

Beacon Lane, Sedgefield.

Today is day 50 of 2024. Surprising how quick it has gone. Also, brambling's, siskin's and redpoll's are still flying into our garden. Never has so many of these breeds visited and for so long. First seen at the start of 2024, normally only one or two seen in a day. At times we have witnessed up to 11 rambling's and 10 siskin's at one time, visiting numerous times during the day.
Photo: morning siskin

Continuing the theme of weather, it continues to be wet today. So far the morning is cloudy, drizzle, wet and not warm. Birds also continue to fly into the garden. This morning seen, wren, robin, dove, siskin, brambling, chaffinch, goldfinch and redpoll.

Today is the 45th day of 2024. So far, yes it's still classed as winter, the weather has been extremely miserable. Mainly damp, at times heavy rain and if not the occasional bit of snow, it has been misty. Today it's misty.

First walk for a good few days. Four miles around Hardwick Park. No rain today although very wet ground following exceptional rain over the last few days. Slight increase in air temperature, possibly the reason why we have a heavy mist since last night, still hear late in the day.
Pic: Misty Hardwick Park

Cold, very wet but no snow. Snow forecast has not appeared although snow may have reached Derbyshire and others but not here. Teesside Park visited this morning and saw two redshanks: pic below.

Had to go to Bishop Auckland this morning and on the wayback, decided to take a long drive back, stopping off for a quick visit at Piercebridge roman bridge. Terrible English Heritage car park. In fact it wasn't a carpark, just trenches. The remains were interesting though.

Busy yesterday, Saturday, on the front main bedroom installing wooden floor. So very tired today. In fact extremely tired. Therefore having a quiet day with the odd photo and learning AI. One photo below.

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Thursday at Teesside Park. Not as busy as expected but it was cold, mainly due to a strong breeze. Old River Tees was at mid level with the tide on a downward fast flow.