It’s a schizophrenic season. When the sun shines and the wind drops the birds are soon singing and bumble bees buzzing. A song thrush, robin, wren and greenfinches are all taking up territories, a noisy pair of Canada geese fly over most mornings and magpies are making a nest in the Beech tree. A calling little owl one still evening during the week, was new for the garden. But the rest of the time with gales, endless rain and the temperature dropping this week so we even had snow, the smaller species like tits, finches and sparrows have disappeared and the garden feeders are deathly quiet.

One excitement has been birds of prey with Sparrowhawk and Red Kite overhead, and even a passing Peregrine one day. I remember as a kid going whole years where I only saw three or four raptor species, so seeing three species on one day out of my window reflects a massive turnaround in their fortunes. I’m also lucky that my commute passes over the Cotswolds, so as well as enjoying some snowy scenes, I regularly see kites and owls along the road - this week I got great views from the car of Barn and Short-eared Owls around Hawling & Salperton.