Living dangerously in the garden

First of all can I say how nice it is to have some new faces submitting comments. My aim in this blog is to make it a nice, unthreatening atmosphere where loads of you feel welcome to have your say.

Secondly, the obvious - isn't it COLD! I’ve been recording the maximum and minimum temperature in my Sussex garden every day for eight years now, and the last four days have been colder than any previous November day.

And when the cold kicks in, strange things start to happen in the world of garden birds. The total number of bird species that I saw visit yesterday was 15, way up on normal (and today's photo is of a wary Chaffinch and demure Collared Dove wondering whether to brave my rowdy Starlings).

And then I had the pleasure of being visited by a brand new species for the garden. Yes, for the first time since moving here, I saw ....wait for it....a Crow!

Now I often see them over the top, and Jackdaws and the odd Raven flying over too. But the thing is that birds are experts at risk assessments. For many species, when they find themselves near a garden or passing over, their sensor goes ‘beep beep beep. Danger alert! Steer clear!’

To them, a garden just looks a bit too enclosed, too disturbed. All those fences and buildings and trees mean that they know they won't be able to see predators approaching. And they don’t like all the to-ing and fro-ing of all those four-legged and two-legged mammals. Even if birds can spot that there are nice berries or seeds or fat balls to be had, it is normally just not worth the risk.

But throw in a bit of snow and hard frost and birds need to find so much more food to just keep themselves going. What's more dangerous now? Daring to venture into the garden, or starving?

So right now I'm keeping my eyes peeled for yet more risk-assessors choosing to be brave rather than hungry. What would I like? A Blackcap maybe. Some Long-tailed Tits. Oh go on then, I'll settle for a Waxwing...