The cold weather of the last few days has been pretty miserable for the local small birds but, for us, has been good in that it has driven them to our feeders so we can sit in the warmth and watch their antics.
The most noticeable affect of the influx has been on the garden robin. From having to cope with the constant intrusions of the graveyard robin from over the road he now has to face three more, giving us a total of five robins disputing the feeding areas. The garden robin used to be fat and prosperous-looking; he's now looking thin and harassed.
We have a problem telling them apart. They're remarkable similar so we can only distinguish three, the garden, graveyard and plain robins. What they infuriatingly won't do is all line up in a neat row while I take photographs, front and two sides, so we can recognise them all.
The house sparrows are back in numbers, dominating the seed feeders and displacing the tits from the peanuts. The one on the left is my favourite, an old gentleman who won't take any mucking about from the young whippersnapper sparrows. He's slow, a messy eater, and rather dishevelled.
In a few minutes yesterday morning we saw two species we hadn't seen in some time. First, a male siskin appeared, managed a few moments on one of the feeders before he was displaced from it, and then flew off in disgust.
Then a male greenfinch arrived. He stayed much longer but didn't seem too bothered about having a meal. Perhaps he was keeping watch over....
....a very sleek female greenfinch who was enjoying the peanuts.
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