Only a handful of birds were on these icy hills this afternoon but they did include a pair of red kites(looking fantastic in the sunshine)and a merlin. Dropping into the valley and stopping by a small straggle of bushes and trees I was pleased to see a pair of stonechat but amazed to first hear and then see, a green woodpecker, as it flew into a nearby ash to have a look at this intruder.In April 2007 one spent over a week calling for a mate near here and one was purported to have bred a few years earlier in the valley shown here. As hard weather is reckoned to have almost done for them in Cere I just hope this one survives the current cold. View SE across the upper part of the Blaencaron valley near Tregaron.(private farmland)