Cold

No. It has not been especially cold, indeed it has been near average temperatures for the time of year.
But I have one. Not an average temperature, but a cold. And largely it has stopped me going out for anything other than Lemsips.
Of course I have been looking out of the window and noting what has been going on with my feathered friends from time to time although not with a camera. I posted the above from a year or so ago in the back garden (taken with a compact camera) just because this morning I heard a thump on the window and some shrill squealing, so rushed out to the conservatory, opened the door, and nearly accidentally trod on a Sparrowhawk which in turn was treading rather more deliberately on a male Blackbird. It hopped off over the wall with its breakfast and I went back in to make a bacon sandwich and muse over the beauty and cruelty of nature. Hmm.
This was the closest I have been to a wild Sparrowhawk (a male this time as opposed to the female in the picture) although they are irregular but not infrequent visitors to my birdtable and its environs. What is interesting about their hunting habits here is that although I have on a couple of occasions seen them hit Collared doves over the stream (which is a bit like seeing an exocet missile hit a feather pillow with a very audible thud) nearly every time I have witnessed an attack it involves a collision, usually with a window, in which they do not always come off best. My guess is that as they close in on their prey in a chase, they reach a "lock" where it doesn't really matter how suicidal an attempt of the prey to escape is, they are going to hit it anyway. I have thought this before when years ago seeing a Blackbird flying over a hedge and straight at the side of a house with a male Sparrowhawk in close pursuit. A brilliant last second 90 degree turn by the Blackbird left the Sparrowhawk staring at a very fast approaching faceful of bricks and mortar which it just managed to bounce of lightly as it turned upwards a fraction too late.
I did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch last weekend, in fact I did it on both saturday and sunday to see what the difference would be. As it turned out, it wasn't enormous, although differences in the two lists included Nuthatches, Treecreeper, Bullfinches, Black Headed Gulls, Crows, Magpies, Jackdaw and Great Spotted Woodpecker. I haven't as yet sent in either of these records in case any of species find themselves on an RSPB hit list.