Let it snow…

rom summer to winter in one posting. On Monday night the temperatures plummeted, and on Tuesday we finally lit the wood stove, as we watched the snow fall and the hail bounce it was very comforting. So now that we're warm and snug it can do whatever out there, although last night's storm had to he heard to be believed...
TB moved her horses to their new winter quarters (The National Park won't let her graze her own fields all year round) and was delighted to discover a Barn Owl had set up home in the field shelter. Although whether it will stay there now the horses are using it is another matter, however, it has been seen flying around which one of the young horses find fascinating.
Another edition of CJS Weekly is now printing, this week there are 60 new paid posts (35 direct) over nine pages.

Indian summer?

You might have noticed things are a little different here this week – or maybe not (in which case, phew, we're hiding it well!) Our Data Manager is away for three weeks. AW flew from Manchester to Nepal on Saturday and is now trundling into India on a very long train journey. This means that our new recruit is deputising and some of AW's other roles have been shunted sideways, we don't think we've lost or destroyed anything yet but then again perhaps we've just not noticed, I'm sure you'll let us know.
CJS Weekly is now printing, it's bit bigger this week at 11 pages with 77 new paid posts of which 48 came direct to CJS.

Post and search engines

We're always ready to grumble about Royal Mail well here's a nice story for a change. Earlier this week the post was dropped in as usual at around 9.30. Later in the day the door bell rang and there was the postie, he'd found a letter for us tucked into another bundle further on in his round. He put it to one side and called in to drop it off before going back to the sorting office. Well done Ray, thank you.

In these credit crunched days it often feels more difficult to make a difference. Well here's a way that doesn't cost a thing and you can make a huge difference. We've added an Everyclick search engine to the website, every search raises one penny for good causes; we chose the Hawk & Owl Trust as a small but worthy cause and one we've worked with in the past. So give a go and 'give your mouse a heart'.

CJS Weekly 20 October edition is now printing. As it's the third week of the month it contains the Training Calendar which is three pages long, there are nine pages (plus the three of training) containing 53 new paid posts of which 28 were sent direct to CJS.

More Birds and a Weekly.

CJS Weekly
Monday 13 October is now printing. This week it is 8 pages with 55 new paid posts of which 38 came direct to CJS.

More birds
The siskins arrived over the weekend, not in great numbers yet but several different individuals. We've had a few visiting bramblings joining the general finch flock too. Another returning species, but new for this year's list is a willow/marsh tit (I can never tell tother from which unless they're side by side!). Our brave little tree sparrow has been and told his family about the wonderful food available at The Moorlands and we've had three together all happily munching.

CJS Monthly

The October edition of CJS Monthly has now been published. This edition is 3+1 pages long with an additional five of events and training. Paper copies should arrive tomorrow, the digital version is now online freely available.

Marrow and more

Last weekend was the fifth Green End heaviest marrow competition, AW and family have been cosseting their plants through all the stormy weather. On Saturday morning the largest were chosen from their respective plants, cut, washed and carefully polished; Mr W's marrow was so large it had to go in the car, normally a wheelbarrow suffices! AW's offering came fourth but Mr W's was so large it didn't fit on the scales and had to be hung from a spring balance. It came in at 36¾lbs, yes that's right 2 and half stone of marrow. Not quite half ton veg but almost. Needless to say it was the winner and they went proudly home with their trophy and are now working out what to do with several stone of marrow. The monster yellow fellow is the winning cucurbit.


And through all the excitement of birds (see yesterday's posting) and marrow competitions CJS rumbles on and the weekly is now thundering off the printers. It's another small one this week at 8 sides with 70 new paid posts (25 direct to CJS). There's also a call for participants for a new BBC competition to win a year's contact at the prestigious Natural History Unit in Bristol.

The CJS Garden bird watch has started.

It's that time of year, at the weekend the nest boxes were cleaned out and the winter feeders (which were cleaned a month or more ago) were refilled. Although there's been some food available all summer, mostly peanuts and some lower energy seed mixes in a few scattered feeders around the garden the arrival of the winter feeders brought the birds out. As usual the feeders went out a couple of weeks ago for the birds to get used to them again, on Friday there was a little cole tit investigating every port on the sunflower feeder. A clear indication that it's time to get some 'real' food out there. Over the weekend new sacks of nuts, sunflower hearts, hi-energy feed and niger seed were opened and their contents used to fill the various feeders. Since then the garden has been full of birdlife and the feeders need refilling every other day or less, I can see that we'll have to invest in some bigger ones – and some stronger brackets too! We're trying wax worms again but so far no takers, the robin seems perfectly happy with sunflowers.
Our species lists for visitors to the feeders so far is: cole tit (in greater numbers than blue & great), blue tit, great tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch (more numerous than the other finches), song thrush, blackbird, collared dove, wood pigeon, nuthatch (at least two, possibly three), robin, dunnock, house sparrow, tree sparrow (on the nut feeder less than a foot outside the office window, brilliant!), greater spotted woodpecker (very confused). We have also seen wrens and gold crests in the garden but not on the feeders. The long tailed tits have been heard but seen. Siskins are conspicuous in the absence, they'll arrive later, we hope. The winter migratory geese have been flying over head in huge skeins heading south, one numbering about 150 – 200.
Stop Press: we can add a female yellowhammer to the list os species visiting the feeders.