Yesterday's blackbird

This blackbird is perched on the brick structure which I threw together last year to protect the hedgehogs' food in rainy weather.

I can't help wondering how the hibernating hedgehogs have been coping during this very wintery spell we've been having. I suppose we won't know if there numbers have been affected until March when they should make a reappearance.

More birds in the snow

Here's a pied wagtail on the pavement of the Orchard Centre in Didcot. They seem to like pavements and pathways, don't they?

It's strange that some birds such as the blackbird pictured below are very much in evidence, whereas other birds are conspicuous by their absense. (Migratory, perhaps?) I have seen the odd sparrow, magpie and a few crows. I saw a couple of starlings this morning, and the woodpigeons are never too far away. But those that seem the most active are the blackbirds. The snow around these parts is covered in their tracks.

A blackbird, yesterday.

At last - a bird table for the garden

I've finally gotten around to putting a bird table up in my own garden. I have been putting food out for the birds in this snowy weather, but it's tricky finding places to put it down that aren't covered in snow and where the birds will not have to worry about my cat Elsa creeping up on them.

I don't expect any birds will come to it for a while as they do seem to be initially suspicious of such things, but hopefully a few will investigate it soon - perhaps in the early mornings when they are looking for food.

However, most of the birds that I've seen in the garden recently have been blackbirds, and I doubt they'd come up onto a table such as this. They seem happier eating from the ground. The only other bird I've seen in the garden within the last few days was a pied wagtail, which is another bird I think of as feeding on the ground. I'll go on putting seed on the ground beneath the hedge and outside the front of the house for these "bottom feeders".

To be quite frank, it's not the best bird table in the world. It was a £9.99 job from Robert Dyas, and the legs didn't go on too well - the screws were obviously very cheap and a couple of the heads actually snapped off whilst I was tightening them. I may take it apart again and reassemble using decent quality screws.

If it turns out to be a hit with the birds, I may replace it with a posher and sturdier bird table. I suppose this one is an experiment to see if they are actually going to use it.

I've just had a thought. Perhaps I should call it the "bird feeding station" so as to be in keeping with the hedgehog feeding station.

One for next year's Christmas card, perhaps

I managed to get a very festive photo of this robin yesterday morning following a heavy snowfall overnight in Pembrokeshire, Wales.