Beautiful Polish Birds

The snow came as forecast during Wednesday night. In the light of the street lamp, I could see it alternately falling, swirling and blowing horizontally in the wind. Wednesday morning I felt a combination of relief at how little there had been - no need to clear the drive - and disappointment that nothing pretty had resulted, a feeling enhanced by the dull, grey day. This morning, I replenished the bird table and put more peanuts in the holder. The night got down to -4c, but reached 6c during the sunny day: a day for the birds.

The great tits are a routine sight, normally in groups of between four and ten. It was just a couple of months ago that I wondered why we didn't have blue tits when, soon afterwards, I saw a flash of blue. It could have been a slightly smaller great tit, but watching carefully, they must have been there all along. The bird at the bottom below is a blue tit.



The bird table was also a great attraction. A great tit below.



This was one of two green finches.



The tits get their pieces of food and head for the weeping willow hanging over the pond. Great tits below.





A sparrow, one of two, in the same willow. The leaves are from the honeysuckle climbing through it.



A blue tit, also one of two - both are visible in the second picture.





The blue colour is more visible in this picture on the honeysuckle near the ground.



The largest visitors of the day were two jays. They occasionally squeeze onto the bird table, but today just fed on seeds that had fallen onto the ground.