Robin

I was just sat having a cup of tea (and a mince pie) in the conservatory when I looked up and saw this beautiful robin in the back garden. I'm really pleased because I've been trying to encourage birds into the garden for a few weeks now. When we first moved here the back garden was pretty bird unfriendly. It had no grass and was just an arrangement of paving slabs, gravel, woodchips and a couple of flower beds. We've since put down some grass for the guinea pigs. I was really missing the birds and so was Buster. We used to get such an array of wildlife in the back garden at the old house and he would sit in the conservatory chattering to the birds in that funny whiskers-twitching-lots-of-tiny-miaows kind of way. He's far too lazy to be bothered to chase them so he just talks to them instead!

Anyway, after speaking to beadmaking bird guru Emma Ralph I put a couple of feeders in the back garden and for the past week or so the number of feathered visitors to the garden has increased. This morning I've seen starlings, pigeons, robins and blue tits. This little robin was eating the crumbs that the starlings had dropped from the feeder above. The picture's not brilliant as I took it from where I was sat with the camera set to maximum zoom but I think it's quite festive nonetheless.