Christmas Eve with Craig & Ciaran.

For months we had planned to visit Lake Windermere on Christmas Eve, however at the last minute we had to cancel. It was probably for the best we didn't go as thick snow fell throughout the night. However Craig & Ciaran decided to come down to Manchester to deliver Christmas cards - and so we decided we'd nip up to Crompton Lodges again.

Armed with 8 loafs of bread (for the birds), hot chocolate, whiskey and mince pies (for us!) we arrived to find we had most of the Lake to ourselves and with only us feeding the birds - which were hungry again - we managed to catch 25 birds.

Coot - 9 new / 3 recaps with metal rings which had colour rings added.

Mute Swan - 3 new

Canada Goose - 10 new

Great to see Ciaran back up north for Christmas - he's been working with the RSPB in Norfolk for 4 months.

We also took time to try and read as many Coot colour ring combinations, resulting in 31 rings being read.

However after all the ''hardwork'' we could not resist a sledge on the hills at Crompton Lodges before we left!

On the way home we nipped into the Shakerley feeding station for an hour, catching 19 birds. 15 new + 4 recaps (in brackets).

Blackbird - 6

Bullfinch - 3

Goldfinch - 2 (1)

Blue Tit - 4 (1)

Great Tit - (1)

Robin - (1)

Merry Christmas from us all....