Winter has arrived

 Monday morning is refuse day and all of the blue bins were out in the snow.  With the lids frozen tight shut, it was not a good day for the bin men.

 The Fallow deer in the woods at Trentham were congregating in tight groups and staying within the woodland under cover of the gorse and dead bracken.

In the woods at Consall, the dead mans fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) were out.  These fungi are not so common and I have only seen them on a couple of occasions in these woods.

I was really pleased to see a Thrush in the garden again.  This is an infrequent visitor, but our neighbours have seen one most days of the week, so we may have a local pair.

This Nuthatch was feeding on the fence posts at The Trentham Lakeside Cafe, where they put out seed for the local birds.
Last night, the temperature dropped to -5, which is quite cold for this part of the world.  Today we have seen lots of Goldfinches on our feeders.  I counted 9 at one time, but with the amount of feeding that is going on, there must be a lot more than this.