An old friend returns

It's always good to see an old friend after a long absence. Several years ago thrushes were regular visitors to our garden and then they just seemed to disappear. Then last year we would occasionally spot one in the garden or at the allotment. Even without actually seeing them you could guess they were about as small piles of broken snail shell were spotted near to large flat stones. Whenever I weeded or dug I made sure the stones were put back in place. The thrushes use the stones as anvils to smash the snail shells. We also found broken snail shells in the garden and suspected a thrush was at work there too. During this latest cold spell a thrush (or it may be more than one) has been a constant visitor to our ground feeding stations.

It especially enjoys Golden Chorus and Mealworm Crumble (sounds delicious doesn't it?). They are more expensive than standard bird food bird as they say in the shampoo advert - "it's because they're worth it!"

The RSPB birdwatch is at the end of January so I bet it goes into hiding when we decide to carry out our count!