Today began as we would wish all midwinter days to begin, beautifully. An early mist lay in strands over the river valley as the sun rose in an ice blue sky to lighten the garden with a cold glow.
The Panicum grasses around my pond are hanging with seed sparkling pale gold and now they must be perfectly ripe, the birds know just when to visit and as they dance around the stems eating their fill I can watch through the window and shiver on their behalf.
In my home office all day, I’ve looked out on and off and the birds have come and gone in turn, to eat, drink and bathe. Goldfinches, bluetits, dunnocks, chaffinches, sparrows, a solitary robin and always two or more blackbirds.
Later in the day, as the light gathered along the western horizon, there were larger ripples on the water which as I watch, transpired to be caused by a large rat swimming across to the soundtrack of a blackbird ‘pink pinking’ in alarm call from a cherry tree.
What a treat of a bird reserve my winter garden is, no long journey to visit, no entrance fee or queuing for a hot drink or a cold toilet, just a moving feast of birds by water and fine foliage.
It’s true that there are more exciting sights at an official nature reserve, like the lapwing flock and starling murmuration I was lucky enough to see recently, but my garden birds and I do have a particular connection.
They wouldn’t come to congregate here if I hadn’t dug the pond and planted food and cover plants around it, so we have a symbiotic relationship, each benefitting from the other, they find food, water and shelter and I find that my winter garden is full of beauty.
