Christmas card scene

The stake-out lasted for hours, but at last I managed to capture a (not very good) picture of a robin in the snow. Aaaah!

New bird sighted

I called out to my partner this morning to help identify a bird I'd never seen in the garden before. At first I thought it was a chaffinch, though we have never seen chaffinches in this area. Then he identified it as a brambling. I am putting out some new seed that I bought from the Wetlands Trust. It obviously contains something that bramblings love - and sparrows, too, as for the first time ever, we had a flock of about twenty of them on the lawn. Unfortunately, my camera batteries chose that moment to die. Just my luck!

Raiders of the Lost Birdfeeder!

This is by far the fattest squirrel I have ever seen and its mate is just as porky. No wonder, seeing they spend all day stuffing themselves with my expensive bird seed! Squirrels, parakeets, jays and woodpeckers, they're all at it. The little birds hardly get a look in! One of th squirrels (I bet it was the female) worked out how to unscrew the tops of the feeders. I looked out the other morning and two of them had vanished. They were on the ground, empty. Now my partner has drilled holes in the tops and inserted a nail, though the furry fiend got one of those out, too, so I have had to twine rubber bands round them - which now bear traces of tooth marks.