Chiltern Birder

After a sudden drop in activity before Christmas things seem to be back to normal now. Both sunflower heart and fat levels are falling rapidly in the feeders again and the flock of goldfinches is back. A pair of bullfinches have been regulars for the last week or two and a nuthatch drops by occasionally. A brief visit to the back garden by a great spotted woodpecker has added to the species count. In the front garden we are seeing far less activity and the fat feeder on the quince tree has only been replenished once this season. I suspect that for some reason we aren't getting the woodpeckers at the front of the houses at the moment as they have been heavy consumers of fat in the past.

I was away at the weekend when we had a cold snap with snow. When I came home the seed feeder was still one third full. Since then there seem to be far fewer birds on the feeder whenever I look. Were there a lot of fatalities or did the bad weather start other people feeding so the birds have just moved to feeding stations nearer their roosts? I can't tell but I must spend more time watching over the Christmas period.

The weekend's snow has covered the garden. There is a bare patch under the feeder but the tracks over the rest of the garden are all made by birds. This morning, before refilling the feeder I saw my first nuthatch of the winter in the garden. Last week we also added a pied wagtail to the garden't species count. A blackbird has finally ventured out from under the shrubs at the bottom of the garden to take the meal worms and raisins that I scattered on the snow together with a wood pigeon.