We had a long, rich autumn. All readers
in the UK will know that this is now well over. Parts of the country
have endured serious flooding. Yesterday we woke to a garden dusted
grey with frost.
The most obvious change in the
plant-life has been the change in the deciduous trees. We are
now surrounded by bare branches, and the neighbouring houses are the main
view, no longer obscured. These bare twigs are sycamore, birch and
hawthorn. The coppiced hazel, by the compost heap, is still in full
leaf, and the leaves are more green than yellow. The beech in the hedge is
one of the brightest colours now in the garden, and I expect the
leaves to stay all winter.
But the jolliest aspect of the winter
garden for me is the return of the small birds to the feeders. It is
just growing light as I write (after 9.00 in the morning, but this is
winter in Edinburgh). I can see blue tits busy and active, and a
blackbird on the lawn. On Saturday while having breakfast I saw about
6 blue tits, about 10 sparrows, about 5 goldfinches. Also a robin, a
great tit, a coal tit, a female chaffinch, two dunnocks , three
blackbirds and (rare for this garden) a bull finch. This was all in
the space of ten minutes.
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| The squirrel-proof feeder |
The special squirrel-proof feeder has
come into its own. It was designed, and bought some years ago, for
peanuts. I know I am not the only person to notice that birds with
access to fat-balls, nyger seed, mixed grains and so on neglect
peanuts. So this winter I have started filling the feeder with
sun-flower hearts. They cost a bit more than peanuts, but have proved
very popular indeed. In fact some of the goldfinches have been
leaving their special nyger to cluster round the sun-flower hearts.
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| Sweet-briar hips used as food |
What with heavy rain and short days I
have not seen much beyond the feeders, but this litter of foraged
sweet-briar hips shows that they have been much appreciated as food.
The same goes for the many other berries. As well as the small birds
listed above there are magpies, squirrels and wood pigeons now active
in the garden. They all have large appetites.
