The Cool Garden

I must have a cool garden as word has got out that its the 'in place' to hang out. The feeder this morning was like Piccadilly circus for small birds. I had 12 Black Birds here today, never seen so many. Ten Males and two females. There were so many birds it wasn't surprising there were a few squabbles. The snow has been falling heavily for most of the day. There was a good 6 inches of snow when I woke this morning. I kept filling the feeder and defrosting the drinking water, which soon froze over again. I was worried I was running out of food for the ground feeding birds so I put some of the cats old food out and it was soon devoured. The Black Birds, Dunnocks and Robins ate it all. As the snow got deeper the heavier birds were struggling and ended up virtually swimming through, well on top of the snow, leaving very unusual patterns in the snow. The smaller birds didn't sink quite as much so had a much easier time. They actually made snow holes in the snow which went all the way down to the grass below. Even the hanging feeders were filling up with snow as this woodpecker was finding out. This photo of the bench was taken mid afternoon and shows how deep the snow was then. Oh news, the Jays are back. Three of them where here today and were a joy to watch, picking through the monkey nuts.