Winter Flowers and Bird Watching

I think winter flowers are more precious than any others. Aconites and snowdrops are pretty but tiny but Hellebores must be the best. We seem to have 4 different ones here.
                                                          White with pink middles

Completely white

                                             
                         White with purple flecks and green centres, these are not quite open yet

              And my favourites, the earliest and tallest - shades of purple, dark in the buds and lighter the longer they are open

I expect these are all have proper Latin names but I don't know them.

With so many clumps of flowers I was able to bring a few in to enjoy in close up, which was a mistake that I should have foreseen - flowers that can stand up to minus temperatures are obviously not going to last long indoors - two days and they had keeled over.

 Of course one of the good things about the Christmas or Lenten Rose is that as it's leaves are evergreen you always know where they are when weeding the garden and I've got a lot of clearing to do as soon as the weather warms a bit. We had our coldest night of the winter here on Wednesday night, after waking to the most snow we'd had in the morning..........although only half an inch!!.

Compared to the showiness of the Hellebores poor Primroses look quite pathetic when there is just one little plant but it won't be long before they will be out everywhere and make more of a display.

Colin did the RSPB Big Garden Bird watch and saw all the normal visitors to the feeders and the ground beneath..............

Blue Tits, Great Tits, Long Tail Tits, Coal Tits, Goldfinches, Robins, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Hedge Sparrows, House Sparrows, Wrens, Collared Doves, Wood Pigeons, Pheasant,  Dunnocks, Starlings and Blackbirds.
It was only a few days later that we also had a visit from a pair of Greenfinches and best of all.......a Yellowhammer.
The squirrel has been back once or twice but since I repaired the big feeder....above.... with a flower arranging Oasis holder on the base, (fixed on by heating a tent peg over the gas and going through plastic and wire on each side) and a plastic tub over the top, he hasn't been able to get into the feeder. Ha! Mr Squirrel !
( Col had sent for a squirrel-proof feeder but, luckily as it turned out,  it didn't arrive and were refunded by the ebay seller. So mending the feeder and failure by seller saved £7)

Welcome to a new follower - I'll soon be up to 300 at this rate. Thank you to everyone for comments, hints and tips on various things.

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Sue