Birdie Nom Nom

I've always liked to feed garden birds and in our previous house, apart from blue tits, finches and blackbirds, we had a noisy flock of sparrows who lived in the bushes. Each day they would eat their way through a whole feeder of nuts! They had mastered the art so well that they even fed their fledglings from it:

Here in our new home we have quite a different selection of bird visitors. So far we've had nuthatches, goldfinches, long tailed tits, blue tits, sparrows, woodpeckers, robins, blackbirds and today a pair of doves....word must be getting around!

In the mornings it's a feeding frenzy as they flit in and out of the apple tree, the nuthatches are greedy little things and feed upside down, stabbing their beaks at any other birds who dare to disturb their personal space. The sparrows and blue tits are more tolerant of each other and happily feed in groups but when the woodpecker strikes..the other birds are disturbed and fly off into the bushes.

Being messy feeders, quite often the birds will flick bread from the bird table onto the ground... Truffle has cottoned on to this so her enthusiasm for the front garden has become part of the daily routine as she races out there to nom tasty morsels carelessly discarded by the greedy birds!!!

We've tried to get photos of the birds but it's not easy so the best I can do is a little sketch of three types of visitors (not quite up to Mr F standard but it's the best I can do and he's buggered off to Twickenham today...something to do with Rugby, Help for Heros and Wessex Choir).

All very distracting as I gaze out of my office window but such a joy to see more visitors every day, even if it is costing us a fortune in bird feed!