Birds in the snow

The robin who came to the stables every day at feed time disappeared towards the end of our three weeks of frost and snow. The next door neighbour’s cat had been killing blackbirds and thrushes too weak to fly after the heavy fall of snow on Sunday morning and we feared the worst for our tame little red-breasted friend.

But he was back again this morning, sitting on a bucket and waiting for me to hand him his morning ration of oats. I suspect that he moved around to the front of the house temporarily where the bird table was alive with wings, birds fighting over fat balls and peanuts. A particularly aggressive field fare ventured in and ran from one apple to another on the ground, sending blackbirds flying and tutting tutting indignantly at this stranger in their midst.

A number of more unusual birds appeared close to the house during the snow. Field fares and red wings normally flock in fields but were driven into gardens by starvation. Both of these are winter visitors to Ireland and I don’t suppose they were impressed by our sudden, unusually Arctic conditions. A lapwing circled the yard on Sunday and eventually alighted on the manure heap where warmth had melted the snow. I put out water and oats for him too and the heap was soon covered in birds.