Of Birds and Other Animals

One of the up sides of the recent cold snap has been the frantic activity around the bird feeders suspended from the branches of an old apple tree outside my study window. I'm lucky enough to have a sparrow roost in the garden so they're around all the time, house sparrows and also dunnocks. Greenfinches, chaffinches, one solitary goldfinch looking colourful and exotic amongst its less exuberant cousins. A pair of collared doves have been regular visitors mopping up the spillage from the seed container. A hen pheasant occasionally puts in an appearance. It never ceases to amaze me how fast she can run when startled. There's the usual complement of great tits, blue tits and coal tits but the biggest thrill has been the visits of a small flock of six long tailed tits, described in one of my bird books as reminiscent of "an animated feather duster". They flit from branch to feeder ducking in under the beaks of the more aggressive finches, grabbing a titbit and making off to a higher perch to eat. They're a lovely dusky pink and black with tails twice the length of their bodies. Completely unmistakable.

The ground feeders are around too. A pair of robins and too many blackbirds to count. My excuse for wasting far too much time when I should be working with a pair of binoculars glued to my face watching the goings on is that one of the cats likes to lurk under a nearby bush waiting for her chance to pounce. I keep a little pile of stones on the window sill to threaten her with whenever she approaches. I'm always amazed by the statistics about how many birds are killed by domestic cats each year. It runs into millions. However, living in the countryside as we do the cats fulfill their function of keeping rodents at bay. Certain compromises have to be made on account of the cats though. Much to my regret I don't have any nest boxes around the garden. Although it's possible to protect the boxes the fledgings are just too vulnerable. Birds do nest here though and every year some inevitably fall foul of the cats.

Keeping them supplied with food during the snow and frost has taxed my ingenuity somewhat. Of course, there's a constant supply of peanuts and seeds but I like to try other things too. Mashed up peanuts are a great draw for just about everything and also attract starlings, the clowns of the bird world. There are lots of starlings around but they don't often visit the feeders. One of my greatest pleasures in my tiny English suburban garden was following the antics of the flock of starlings that visited every day. Starling fledglings learning how to take a bath stands out as the greatest natural comic moment. Fat cakes are great but I ran out of my supply of fat a while ago and keep forgetting to get lard to make some more. Leftover chips and batter go down very well. A wren has taken to using the garden pond as a hunting ground and seems to do very well indeed there.

Much to my delight yesterday I noticed the first clump of frogspawn in the pond. It was frozen solid this morning so I don't know if it will survive. Frogs don't do well in the pond as the goldfish tend to eat the tadpoles before they grow legs and escape. One of my projects for this year is to dig another pond for the frogs and anything else that wants to take up residence. My next door neighbour has newts in her pond so perhaps I can re-house a couple of those. That would be thrilling.

It's been a beautiful bright day here and the river was calm and peaceful when I went for a walk so here a photo taken from the bank.