WEATHER WARNING OR JUST WEATHER?

So the first snow of the winter arrived tonight as I arrived home from work. Only about a couple of millimetres, but at least something that should show the animals that will walk around the garden and surrounding areas at night.

I took my torch and filled a couple of the bird feeders to ensure some food for the small birds when they wake up in the morning. I’m unlikely to see them enjoying it as I’ll be away before first light and home after dark.

At least the weekend is here and Saturday should tell me how much the food was appreciated.

I’m expecting the feeders to have been more or less emptied, although that does depend entirely on how much snow does arrive.

The forecast suggested we’d get a fairly large amount, although I get the feeling it won’t be too much, certainly not enough to stop me being away all day.

Having snow in the garden is a great way of seeing the pattern of footprints, working our who they belong to and try to work out which order they went in to find out how each animal goes about its food search.

I sometimes use this knowledge to place food, or help cultivate an area. One of the key things I did in the autumn was fill the borders with dead leaves and cut grass to provide a layer of protection to the soil, a habitat to those small animals that live in and around the leaf litter and soil, a food source for birds and small mammals that eat those small creatures and fertiliser for the soil when spring comes around.

It has worked in previous years and I can tell be the fact the leaves are scattered around that the birds are finding food in there. The only thing I’d like to see is the birds, particularly the blackbirds, putting the leaves etc back!

So what will tonight bring? I hope snow and a few inches, but thing this is something others will enjoy and I will have to gaze at the news images and video and wonder what it would be like.