Frozen

It was minus quite a lot last night, somewhere between -6C and -9C, which in my book is quite chilly. At such times I always spare a thought for the tiniest birds, given the volume:surface area ratio and all that jazz. I personally have found over several decades of increasing my volume, I actually feel the cold more than 30 years ago, but who am I to fly in the face of science. Enough of me, back to tiny birds. The smallest birds around here are goldcrests, but during the winter they seem to disappear, and to be frank, I don't blame them. The next smallest are long tailed tits, one of my favourite birds (along with many others) which seemed to have a fantastic breeding season this year. I can never understand why they don't freeze solid overnight even allowing for the fact that they roost in huddled up groups. Most winters we get sizeable flocks whizz through the alders here, but this year they have been about all summer and autumn with just a handful feeding during the winter, dropping down to usually two regular visitors at the moment. When its very cold they often puff up like table tennis balls with tails which I hope one of these photos shows (taken through double glazing - I'm not stupid)(entirely).