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Feathered friends

Mr Gaucho is having a hell of a job keeping up with the voracious appetite of the garden birds.  He is filling the bird feeders every day.  It's hardly surprising.  The weather is bitterly cold and the poor little mites have to, more or less, eat their body weight every day to survive.  
The birds are such a joy to watch.  Yesterday I melted some lard and loaded up a couple of empty coconut shells with bird seed and set it with the fat.  I've hung one just outside our dining room window and the coal tits and long-tailed tits have just discovered it. 
The long tailed tits are one of my favourites.  They usually come in little groups of four or five.  I love their colouring - soft browny-pink, charcoal grey and white.
Here is Mr Robin, doing his hummingbird impersonation in his desperate effort to do what the other birds do, and in the end he managed it!  His perseverance was rewarded!
And finally, one of the goldfinches, sitting in the sun on a witch hazel branch.  It's a blurred image but I love the colours.
My cousin refers to the birds as little miracles - and they are!

Comments

  1. We're busy feeding the birds here too, we get visits from goldfinches, sparrows, blue tits, robins and blackbirds. We have to scare off the neighbourhood cats and although I'd love a cat of my own the birds really need to be fed in safety! x

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  2. I know - the cats are a nightmare here. We have four on the premises - my cat Pippi, and my daughter's family have 3. One is a very young cat and an absolute killer! You see here stalking around the garden and lurking in the undergrowth near the feeders - little minx! Just doing what comes naturally, unfortunately, but luckily it's mostly mice that cop it, with just an occasional bird. Still not good news when it happens though. Have a good weekend. A x

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