Snow continues

Despite the continuing Winter conditions, the birds sound ever optimistic as they sing with the most melodic of tunes. Their songs are loud and beautiful, perhaps to remind us that they need feeding. Often in these type of Winters many of the song birds die. Blackbirds and robins enjoy juicy worms and grubs which they cannot get to with the snow and the ice. The finch family prefer tiny seeds which are also hard to find in this weather. The tit family are diverse in their eating habits as some eat small spiders, insects, seeds, aphids, nuts, acorns, sweet chestnuts, fruit, small slugs (usually the black variety) and pine nuts to name but a few.

If you can feed the birds – then look in your store cupboards as so many things are suitable and will help to keep them alive:

• Stale cheese grated is always a good stand-by in the cold, crisp weather
• Stale bread crumbled and soaked in water or mixed with fat
• A scoop of barley
• Oats – which can be used straight from the packet or mixed up with fat and made into balls
• Dried fruit
• Stale biscuits, cakes, pies
• Nuts
• Seeds – pumpkin, sunflower, sesame
• Stale apple – sliced in half
• Baked or boiled potato
• Scrap dinner left-over’s  … etc

Brrr it’s cold out there!