{"id":355,"date":"2009-12-31T18:27:46","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T18:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=355"},"modified":"2012-04-16T03:56:29","modified_gmt":"2012-04-16T03:56:29","slug":"sloe-and-steady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/sloe-and-steady","title":{"rendered":"Sloe and steady"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the\u00a0completion of the thaw yesterday we woke this morning…to a fresh covering of snow \ud83d\ude42 Now, I make no secret of the fact that I love wintry weather.\u00a0 I’m invigorated by it, my photography is inspired when we’re in the grip of bone-chilling temperatures and a blanket of snow on the ground fills me with joy.\u00a0 I struggle to understand the media apoplexy that greets snowfall each winter.\u00a0 Well,\u00a0that’s the usual response\u00a0if that snowfall is anywhere other than Northumberland…<\/p>\n

I often wonder what the national media thinks lies between Leeds and Edinburgh?\u00a0 Today was no exception.\u00a0 The national weather forecast on the BBC was concerned with snowfall in the northeast of Scotland.\u00a0 And that was it as far as snowfall was concerned…my only problem was that as we drove up the A1 just north of Morpeth there was a good couple of inches of freshly-fallen snow on the road and we were in a blizzard that brought near white-out conditions.\u00a0 Sarah took this shot using my ‘phone.<\/p>\n

\"Nowhere
Nowhere other than Scotland eh?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lorry that you can see ahead of us spent most of his journey veering across the carriageway as he lost traction.\u00a0 The cars I could see in our rear view mirror were having similar problems.\u00a0 And us?\u00a0 We were in a proper vehicle \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 No problems, just a steady drive to make sure we were a safe distance behind the lorry.\u00a0 That’s the thing about wintry conditions, as long as people understand that things are different there probably isn’t a need for the panic and the mayhem.<\/p>\n

We arrived at Lee Moor, and the covering of snow on the ground wasn’t managing to lighten the gloomy conditions a great deal; 09:30 and the sky was as darker than\u00a0it had been at 8am.\u00a0 Our small group assembled and we set off around the farm trails.\u00a0 The birdwatching was good; a big mixed flock of Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings and Tree Sparrows allowed a close approach, Kestrels and Buzzards passed overhead, a solitary Lapwing sat motionless in a snowy field and a covey of Grey Partridges flushed from\u00a0a well-managed headland.\u00a0 Throughout the frozen woodland Brown Hares were regularly encountered and voles appeared from, then disappeared back into, their snow-holes.\u00a0 The covering of snow also made it easy to follow the tracks of Roe Deer and Red Fox.\u00a0 Back at the farm, Ian provided a delicious lunch of home-made soup, warm bread and mince pies.\u00a0 Then he produced a bottle of Sloe gin.\u00a0 It was a shame\u00a0Martin was driving as he had 2003, 2004 and 2009 vintages! Sarah enjoyed it…and reminded\u00a0us that we had a bottle in our drinks cabinet at home…<\/p>\n

\"Lee
Lee Moor Farm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"In
In the bleak midwinter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
An 'interesting' footpath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ian
Ian, a wooly hat and one of them old-fashioned film camera thingies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That’s it for 2009.\u00a0 Have an enjoyable Old Year’s Night and see you in 2010 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the\u00a0completion of the thaw yesterday we woke this morning…to a fresh covering of snow \ud83d\ude42 Now, I make no secret of the fact that I love wintry weather.\u00a0 I’m invigorated by it, my photography is inspired when we’re in the grip of bone-chilling temperatures and a blanket of snow on the ground fills me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,124],"tags":[823,57,53,117,128,825,847,127,66,125,126],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-lee-moor-farm-northumberland","tag-birdwatching","tag-brown-hare","tag-buzzard","tag-grey-partridge","tag-kestrel","tag-northumberland","tag-red-fox","tag-reed-bunting","tag-roe-deer","tag-tree-sparrow","tag-yellowhammer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1542,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/1542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}