Another wave of starlings...

Thats why water was so dirty in other photo :o))

I feel cold just looking at them! I put warm water in the bird baths early this morning, frozen solid again now!

my birdbath was frozen solid this morning shirley, had to get the kettle on lol, but soon froze again

I've just put ablog on about what i use to do with birdbath last year.

I too put hot water in our BB, just hope it helped for a while!!

LOL....a polar bear swim for the birds. Great photo. I'm afraid to put hot water in the BB...I always worry that the poor birds will 'flash freeze' in the cold weather.

OH checks every now and then and unfreezes this one as its stone and freezes quickly. Our other one is a sort of plastic or resin..doesnt freeze so much. We've had literally hundreds of birds in the garden today..3 robins, 5 blackbirds, sparrows and tits we cant count, chaffinches, goldfinches..but nothing extra special..maybe tomorrow. OH goes overboard in the cold weather, he has six feeders and two fatball feeders and one nutfeeder out..besides the bread soaked in olive oil, mealworms and raisins!!

I'm all for sharing a bath with a friend - but it's a bit cold out there brrrrrr ! Follow this link for a great tip for keeping the birds water un-frozen. (Thankyou Shirley tulip for reminding me. x)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjxqKgKufSk&feature=player_embedded&dm_i=449,347O,Q1ZOA,9R4V,1

Check out the little girl laughing 13 seconds in - cracks me up every time :-)

If you knew how long it took me to remember who put this blog on ... another senior moment ... got there eventually ... thanks Muddy! : o ))
Tetrarch ... I think all those birds are extra special ... we've had Robin/Wren/Dunnock/Blackbird/Blue Tit/Great Tit/Starling/Collared Dove & Woodpigeon today. They all seem desperate to stock up their fat reserves. Only had Goldfinches once since putting out Niger seed. It's a start I guess! Keep up the good work with feeding & watering them. : o ))

You were right about the muddy water Clarice! But as of this moment its all scrubbed and clean and....frozen again!!

Would you believe Shirley, by the time I get to the bottom of a blog I often forget what its about lol! Yes all the birds are special, we even encourage magpies to feed and the pigeons, but we are always looking out for something different. We have a copse near us and there are supposed to be Jays, would love to see one in the garden..sometimes this time of year we get thrushes, not many around these days, and I have seen a red legged partridge. But regretfully no greenfinches and our bullfinches are missing too. And havent seen the woodpecker since that one visit either. We have a pair of dunnocks and a lone wren that are so quiet guess they are there more often than we see.
Like Muddy, these starlings made me shiver, but they cant seem to resist bathing whatever the temperature!

That is a really good idea with the tealight candle. I wonder if that would work here with our lower temperatures? I suppose you could always use two candles if one didn't keep it warm enough. Thanks for the link Muddly and Shirley. :o)

Gilli, don't use the cheap, basic ones I bought the other day for an indoor scented burner, they don't last 2 hours, never mind 12 ! : o )) Tetrarch, a new visitor this morning, a 'dishwasher' or Wagtail to be correct, lovely little bird with a very amusig fast walk. Perhaps he keeps moving to stay warm, blooming cold outdoors today.

Love Wagtails Shirley, especially the pied ones..they really are quite funny! We had one in the garden once, according to OH, I never saw it, but they haunt the wide pavements by the shops and they seem to have a fixation for concrete places here. Even in the park they are more often on the path than the grass.

Yes, I know just what you mean as, a while ago in the Summer, you remember that season (?), we were having coffee & cake in a partly covered shopping area & a Wagtail was walking around the whole time! Tried to photo him/her today, no joy though, as soon as the door opens, he's away!

Just been trying to jog OH's brain..we both have frozen cell syndrome at present!..but tho I cant remember where it was, clearly recall watching with heart in mouth...a wagtail doing his thing and a cat watching...every time the cat got too close, the wagtail would fly about 8ft and back he would go looking for insects..lasted for ages and the cat gave up in disgust!! We felt sure the bird was going to get overconfident and get caught..but not he!!

How brave are they?☃