Having said that, I’d never harm them, or see one suffer. Indeed a few years ago I tried to rescue one that had somehow got it’s leg caught in the bird-feeder, and was hanging there, lifeless.

Fortunately for all interested parties, it managed to free itself as I was finding my gardening gloves. I felt  protection against the aforementioned sharp beak was required.

But although I don’t like them much, starlings seem to like me, or at any rate, our house, as we have several families nesting in the eaves.

The parents swoop across the lawn, caterpillar in beak, only to be greeted by the excited, hungry clamour of their offspring, who are still nest-bound. You just can’t escape them as they are in most rooms.

We have 2 families in the kitchen, 1 in the hall, 1 in the bathroom, 1 on the landing, and Peter has at least 2 in his office. Then their are the 2 families in the boiler house.

I don’t know if they cause any damage, and we’ve had nests in previous years, it’s just that there seems to be more than usual this Spring.

In a few weeks time they will all fledge, and the class of 2012 will be fighting and squabbling on the lawn for the tastiest morcel.

The first snow fall of the winter and continued freezing temperatures had meant that the bird feeder was enjoying it’s busiest period of the year so far. That’s just about the only good thing about this kind of weather, you get lots of visitors to the garden, and if you’re lucky some of these are not ‘regulars’.

One time it was a moorhen, then another time a pair of woodcock. Yesterday I noticed another bird that I had never seen before.

Looking in my only 2 bird books proved inconclusive. Nothing quite seemed to fit, either the description seemed wrong or the picture, or both. In the end I turned to the Internet.

After a  little bit of ‘surfing’, I had the answer. My new visitor was a Fieldfare. Even those these birds are gregarious and most commonly found in flocks, it seems it is possible to see just one, as I did.

He may well be gregarious with his own kind, but I can tell you my new visitor was not friends with anyone else in my garden, and he jealously and aggressively guarded his windfall apples against all comers.

He stayed with us all morning and well into the afternoon. Towards teatime I decided to go out and top-up the feeder before it got dark, this would also give everyone a chance of a decent supper.

My new friend was there and fluttered into a nearby tree as I approached, he then flew into next doors field. In so doing he answered another question that has been puzzling us on and off for many years.

Sometimes when we go for a walk up the lane, particularly in Autumn, we disturb groups of birds in the adjoining fields. Most we recognise, but one group’s identity has so far eluded us.

They rise out of the stubble in a huge flock and are away in an instant. Until now we had no idea what they were, but now I know. Having seen my new friend fly off this afternoon I can say they are unmistakably Fieldfares.

So there we are, horses for courses. Books might be my natural port of call, but sometimes only the Internet will do. However did we manage without it?

Like last year I watched through the kitchen window. The morning was sunny, but cold with no wind. I watched between 9.15am and 10.15am.

As I was doing it I couldn’t help feeling my observations were going to be down on last year so I was quite surprised when I came to compare the results.

Here are this years results, with last years in brackets.

Sparrows 14 (11)    Dunnock  2 (1)     Coal Tit 2 (1)     Chaffinch 2 (0)   Blackbird   5 (7)   Starling 2 (6)   Blue Tit 2 (3)  Great Tit 1 (2)   Robin 2 (4)  Collared Dove 2 (2).

Not as big a difference as I was expecting.

Just like last year I’ll compare my results with the national average, when they’re published. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy watching my birds.

For years now I’ve been putting a bowl of cat biscuits out each night for the various stray cats that have passed my way over the years. The present one, a large, hairy, white and black tom cat is a regular visitor, but is too timid for anything more than a wave through the window.

The cat biscuits I buy are nothing special, but invariably come in mixed flavours, the current box being rabbit, chicken, duck and vegetables. Indeed they all have ‘vegetables’.

The kibbles are different shapes and colours and the vegetable ones are always green.

Sometimes the stray doesn’t eat them all, and in summer the rest is usually eaten by a hedgehog, finally, come daybreak if any are left the birds eat them.

Many a time when I’ve been up early I’ve seen a robin or blackbird having a sneaky snack out of the cat’s bowl. But guess what? They always leave the vegetable ones.

So there you are, it’s not only children that won’t eat their greens.

The other good news is about my Xmas cactus. I wrote earlier in the year about how it had suffered in the winter, in fact I almost lost it.

Today, although there is no sign of any flowers, there are plenty of new, healthy, green leaves, and I feel it is only a matter of time before the flowers will arrive.

Needless to say it is still indoors as I don’t want to risk losing it again.

We had a moorhen in the garden. He’s been pottering around now for about 4 hours or so, I do hope he decides to stay for a while like the last one did.

From memory he seems a bit smaller than his predecessor, so perhaps ‘he’s’ a ‘she’. Either way ‘it’ appears to have amazing hearing or eyesight, as whenever I walk passed the window he (can’t bring myself to keep calling him ‘it’) seems to know I’m there and either stands completely motionless for many minutes, or scuttles into the bushes.

As much as I’d like to get to know him better, I think scuttling into the bushes is a good choice, even though we don’t have cats anymore.

I wrote a little while ago about the plight of a sparrow hawk after one of these events. He was lucky, some others are not. I was particularly saddened to find a dead bullfinch a few years ago, but what can you do?

Today I was sat working on my computer about 2pm when there was a big bang from the direction of the conservatory. I jumped up and was just in time to see a female blackbird lying on her back on the grass flapping wildly.

I thought she was just trying to right herself, and was on the point of going out to help, when she fell still, and never moved again.

I hate it when things like this happen and I find a dead bird, but seeing it with my own eyes was very upsetting, but as I said before, what can you do?

Life and nature are often cruel, and as if to prove the point, when I went out to collect her body I found another female lying dead just a few feet a way, under the window.

There has been the occasional coming and going on the bird feeder, but not the frenzy of previous years. The blackbirds who normally feed on the windfall apples are nowhere to be seen.

There has been a male pheasant, with  short tail feathers, who has made the odd visit but really nothing of note. I saw him the other day on the roof of the conservatory shouting up at the bedroom window.

According to the RSPB this lack of garden bird activity is countrywide, and due to the unusually mild weather. Wild birds prefer wild food for as long as it is available and will only resort to the garden bird-feeder when their natural cuisine runs out in the cold weather.

I have to say it has been remarkably mild. Usually my gunnera is covered up permanently by this time following several severe frosts. This year I’ve just covered it up for one night so far.

As I write this the sky is blue and the sun is streaming through the window. Hard to believe in 5 weeks it will be Xmas Eve!

Best not get too cocky though. Things were going OK last year until the 26th November. Then it all started to go wrong and we were snowed in for 2 weeks.

The only true constant is my little robin friend who comes every day, without fail, just as the last bit of daylight slips from the sky, to take his daily bath in the bird bath outside the kitchen window. As long as he keeps coming all is well.

The gunnera, which I thought had perished last winter, had rallied during the summer months, but is sadly a shadow of it’s former self. Nevertheless, it needed covering in the event of frost so out came all the old sheets and towels and lots of half bricks.

All tender, potted up plants were brought into the relative warmth of the conservatory. It has a rather large hole in the roof which I’ve stuffed with newspaper, not pretty but hopefully effective.

I also decided to look after my little feathered friends and put the bird feeder up. Normally I wait until the first week in November, but given the forecast I decided to do it early.

I didn’t put all the paraphernalia out, just a tube of nuts and one of seeds, plus a dried sunflower head I’d saved from the summer.

In previous years it’s taken them about an hour to start feeding, but this year, despite the frost arriving as promised, I’ve only seen a couple of sparrows making a half-hearted attempt to land on the seed feeder.

I’m really disappointed, as I was trying to help. I must be too early. It will be interseting to see if things liven up the first week in November.