Time flies or should that be Tempus fugit as the poet Virgil said in his bested latin “Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore” Translated for the likes of me that reads as “But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail.” Time has flown it has been three months since I told of the shenanigans at “Chez Walter’s Tables of Choice for the Discerning Bird. Winter has happened, our feathered friends have found it a hard one and Spring is not much better. The picture on the left was my garden on the 19th March the day before spring officially began. I would not say snow has been bad this year, but when it has snowed it has been deep and cold. Today the snow is in patches but it is very cold and with a high wind the chill factor is down to sub-zero temp. I am amazed at how many Siskins have made use of the fare available, at one time I had twelve of them feeding from the tables, feeders and the ground feeders. 
The starling population dwindled though I expect them to be back later in spring. Chez Walter has its stalwart dinners, Robins (2) make good use of the fat nibbles, now that the Starlings have left, Siskins enjoy a luxurious dinning of seeds and fat balls. The little Dunnock meanders all over the gardens picking up the dropped fats and seeds.Of the three Goldfinch that visited last summer I have only seen one recently a quick passing visit. I am sad to say the little Wagtail has not been seen since January, but, that may not be bad news it did the same last year and turned up in late spring. At present the regulars include a male and fem,ale Blackbird. Things must be getting bad in the local bird world when my establishment is being visited by one of the big black birds of the Raven/Crow family as well as the little gardens birds like the Chaffinch. I have seen Jackdaws, Magpies and even crows snatching fat/suet nibbles from the ground however, I have never seen a Rook at one of the feed tables before today. When the rook flew in the rest flew out I was tempted to chase the rook away, but hey its a bird and it was obviously in need of food to survive. As payment for the food the rook posed for the shot on the right. As I sat here and types this blog in the two hours the feeders have been visited by the Siskins, Rook, Chaffinch, Blackbirds, two Collered Doves and the hoover of the bird world A wood-pigeon. I am well paid by the birds for the few seeds and fat balls I put out for them.
