A wintry scene

This is a relatively long clip that was taken from my front garden just a short while ago.

As with most of my videos, it is best watched with the sound off to avoid hearing me speak to birds in a frankly quite embarrassing manner.  

I went out to take some footage of the snow and a robin appeared for its usual feed.

I think this is the mate of a robin that I fed by hand all through last winter and most of this year.

It must have learnt that it was safe to do this from observing the other robin.  I say this because I didn't encourage it all all; not in the same way that was necessary last winter, before its partner would feel confident enough to swoop in and grab a beakful of food.

In fact, I never actually realised I was feeding two birds for quite some time - not until they had babies on the nest in a nearby conifer and I saw them taking it in turns to grab food from my hand and take it back to the young.

While the original bird has sadly gone, presumed dead, its two offspring also have a territory nearby and they are confident enough to eat from the ground at my feet (well, one of them is).

They fight with this one over my front garden and it is interesting to see how finely territories are demarcated - right down to the metre it seems.  From observing them over even a few days, one can see the frontlines where they battle over the extremities of their domains, which move back and forwards over time, or at least that's how it appears to me.