And how many have we lost in this recent dire weather? For while some suggest that the wise ones have perhaps migrated or gone back home, there must be many which have succumbed to this winter. You will often hear it said that you should feed birds only in winter and that, later in the year, when the greenfly and caterpillars and so on are around, it is wise to stop filling your containers or to leave off putting out some bread.
No, the school that believes you should maintain your supply all year round is the one to plump for. For example, when birds are busy feeding their young in spring and early summer, the female especially needs to have a supplementary source. They haven't the time to go searching out the grubs of one sort or another.
That's the principle this house works on, anyway, and is rewarded by a fine, continuous spectacle - as well as knowing it is doing the right thing. So it is firmly believed anyway. In addition to the nuts you need to throw out some bread - and fat.
To the feeders come, according to season, the tits - blue, coal, great and only now and then long-tailed ones. Later in the season chaffinches are there in some numbers, often preferring to eat up the shards of nuts that fall to the ground.
Great angry packs of greenfinches are regulars at this time of year - the hard times. Rooks know this is not for them, but one in particular scours for ages around the debris from the cages or hangers. There was, for a time, a watching sparrow-hawk, at the top of a nearby tree, which a couple of times swooped and went off with one of the visitors. A piece of chicken wire, hung as a screen on his side of the busy area, stopped that.
Coal tits had been there in large numbers this year, but they are now not so numerous. Departed or dead? There must have been many casualties of all types. Throughout the year, oblivious to this feasting, a treecreeper does his ascent and descent of a wrinkled tree. No interest in any feeders. In another garden, water for drinking and bathing in is the main service provided. Four, five and six blackbirds at a time can kick up great showers of water as they prepare their feathers for the night by their energetic splashing. Not to mention the modest goldcrest.
Tits, too, and the rest. And again in this place, there is a tree-creeper diligently exploring the cracks in an oak. At the least, it beats telly for spectacle.