Starving

We use the word starving to mean that we are very, very hungry. Long ago it also carried the meaning of being freezing cold.

Today the garden birds were starving in both senses. There is still plenty of food in the fields and woods round here, and they haven't been coming to the feeders in great numbers. But the temperature today stayed at - 3, even when the sun was out. The hoar frost never lifted - you can get a sense of it in the picture.  The sunflower hearts in this feeder outside the sitting room had to be refilled twice.

I was occupied all day with putting the furniture in position to fit the Christmas tree into the room, polishing (yes, the real elbow-grease stuff, first time in a long time), and generally setting out the festive knick-knackery. 

I put the camera on a pile of books on the window-sill, hooked up the cable-release, and dived over to take a shot every now and again.  I got chaffinches, blue-tits and this nuthatch, who was so surprised that he dropped the seed.

The wire is an attempt to stop crows and pigeons getting into the feeder, so the little birds have a chance.

There seems to be no break in the cold spell, so perhaps the tits and finches will be featuring soon. I certainly don't feel inclined to spend too much time outside.