Fun in the snow

Ed the Bear is coming to visit today. He always enjoys a good joke so I thought I would play a trick on him.

Ed could see me as he came into my garden, he called but I did not answer

The snow was quite deep so he had to wade through the snow to reach me.

What a surprise when he got to where he thought I was standing to find my snow bear.

Ed thought it was very funny.

We went for a walk to see what animals we could see in the park. There were quite a few birds.

There were several blackbird looking for food.

A a flock of beautiful goldfinches were flying about in the tree.

While Ed carried on watching the birds I climb some trees.

The one thing we like better than snow is climbing trees.

It started snowing and I found this old log, which was like a cave to shelter in.

Then Ed caught up to me and challenged me to a snow ball fight.

Ed found a good hiding place to throw snow balls from.

I think Ed must have been practising snow ball throwing while he was in Antarctica on his recent trip as he was a much better shot than me - although I do have shorter arms and small paws.

Good shot Ed

On the way home we passed the animal sanctuary...

and saw the horses

...and ducks

We had great fun in the snow.

Bye for now

Bella Bear

Water everywhere, solid, liquid and vapour

The weather forecast was right, I looked out the window this morning and its snowing.

It was snowing quite hard and it soon piled up on my window - if you look closely you can see parts of snow flakes.

I went out into the garden and checked the thermometer.

- it was minus 3 degrees.

I had a look at my pond. The surface was still frozen over as ice.

Water is amazing, as it can be solid (ice and snow), liquid (water underneath the ice) and gas or vapour (clouds and my breathe) all in the same place. Most substances can only be a solid, liquid or gas not all at once. Even more reasons why water is so amazing.

While the flakes are small and light, you can roll some together in a ball shape so all the flakes are squashed together and then you can throw it.

Snow ball fight anyone, as I said we bears love the snow.

Bye for now, I am just going out to have some more fun in the snow. Oh yes, my brother Ed the Bear is coming to visit tomorrow, I hope its still snowy.

Have fun in the snow, Bella Bear

Snow on the way

I have just heard that it is going to snow tommorow, so I had a look at weather maps on the internet to see where it would snow. We don't get a lot of snow in the UK

The weather maps show we are going to get snow on the south coast where me and Ed the Bear live. Ed lives on the beach so it has to be very cold to get snow there.

Snow can be a lot of fun and for bears with our built in fur coat we can keep nice and warm, but for many animals and some humans it can be a problem.

Bye for now

Bella Bear

Frosty Day

The weather has been very frosty later. Frost can be quite beautiful. I took a close up at the frost on the fence and it was made from lots of ice crystals.

While it might seem that snow is the worst weather for birds, frost can have more of an impact on wildlife. In the UK, we only have snow for a short while, while frosty days are much more common.

One of the most important things that birds need, even in the winter, is drinking water and a bath to keep their feathers in good condition and in place so they keep the bird warm.

Bird baths and puddles of weather that birds commonly use for this will freeze in cold weather and may remain frozen for days.

I checked my bird bath and it was frozen, so tipped some hot water in to melt it.

The pond was frozen over as well, but the pond creatures are all hibernating in the bottom of the pond and even the fish become dormant (like a type of sleep) when the pond is frozen. The ice was so thick I could walk on it.

If you pond freezes, don't try and smash the ice as the shock waves can kill fish, instead you can tip some hot water to carefully melt a section of the ice. However, unless your pond is very shallow its best just to leave it to melt naturally.

Bye for now

Bella Bear