Winter Care for the Birds

Winter has arrived. The overnight temperatures have plunged, the daytime temperatures aren't too special and, with the humidity staying high, there's a chill in the sir - all of which have meant that our regular customers in the garden, like the chaffinches, sparrows, blue tits and dunnocks, have been joined by.... 

....birds we haven't seen for some time, like goldfinches (top), coal tits (bottom) and....

....greenfinches (right). It does seem very hard on our locals that they're now having to fight for a place on the feeders so, to Mrs MW's horror, we've stepped up the number of feeders hanging around the garden, to a grand total of seventeen.

Now this may sound like overkill but these birds give us immense pleasure through the short daylight hours of Sutherland's winter and it does seem to me that the bird population of this country, assailed as it is by loss of habitat and avian flu, deserves a bit of support.

And the number of feeders is being increased. Mrs MW has been despatched to the shops to pick up some lard so we can make sure the birds aren't short of fat to keep them warm through the long winter nights.