I asked hubby to put the bird feeders away a couple of months ago, not a good idea, as I did not know where to find them. But, the up side of it was, that hubby had to go out in the ice and snow yesterday to retrieve the feeders for me.
Having filled the peanut feeder ‘house’ which holds an awful lot of peanuts, I gaily poured in mixed seeds to the remaining small feeders I had been given, which were….wide meshed peanut ones. What a mess, seeds everywhere, but not in a feeder! Fortunately, I have a plastic tub into which I could sweep most of the misplaced varieties of seeds. There is no doubt I was distracted, dealing with unpacking food, travel bags and sorting out the washing. No chance of any of the washing going out on the line to dry in all that ice and snow and more snow.
The down side of the exercise was, I had to trudge outside in the ice and snow to find hubby so I could get the appropriate bird feeding containers. We’ll have to fix up a two-way communication system. Calling never works.
The birds found the bird food today and we have seen crows waiting to shake the feeders to get seed onto the surface of the snow. Lots of little feathered visitors arrived too. Some birds are so small, sparrows and robins, for example, you wonder if they would survive a long hard Winter. Temperatures were below -17Celcius last night and it’s only November.
RANDOM THOUGHTS 
Oh that is cold menhir brrr …not quite as cold here in the south YET musnt speak to soon I have been filling the bird feeder non stop this week poor birds are probably finding it tough so far this winter 🙄 which quite strangely has arrived far too early ….
That is seriously cold! had a giggle at your story of the feeders … isn’t that just what happens. Lucky birds, they can expect a feast in your garden.
That’s my tomorrow job when Astrid goes to work. We buy half a dozen fat balls and peanuts in plastic mesh bags from a cheapie local store then hang them from the apple tree. We also had seeds all over the kitchen last year, the bag burst in the Morrisons bag and of course the Morrisons bag has “sods law’s” hole in it and we left a trail from the door, across the kitchen to the cooker and beyond. Then the cats started pawing them under the base units…..cue vacuum cleaner.
We hit -19C last Winter but, much later on into the season. This is a really early deep cold snap. It is said, the earliest for 17 years.
1996 was not this early, it was nearer Christmas when that occurred and we had a week at -19C then. We were cleaning windscreens with snow as everything else was iced and seized up. At Hull, we reached -0C and it felt relatively warm!
The birds seem to be responding. I think I’ll be refilling the seed containers tomorrow, the peanuts take a little longer to deplete. The food should help some of the birds make it through these cold temperatures.
I didn’t put out the fat balls. Last year they froze and remained untouched. When temperatures rose a bit, the birds could feed from them and did, in particular the larger birds demolished the fat balls at Olympic speeds. I’ll probably put some out when this cold snap lessens.
Thank heavens for vacuum cleaners!
It is necessary to give skis to birds…
Presque…..;)
I have been feeding the birds for sometimme now. Had to break up the solid ice in the bottom of the water pond dish thing we use which was once part of a small fountain. They will i hope manage to survive.
Anything that will help these feathered creatures to obtain food and water is bound to be good. We are aware, though, it makes our little ones at the feeder, good targets for sparrow hawks, who will also be looking for food.