This is a bit of a catch up post as I’ve just realised I haven’t posted about my bird alphabet for a while, in fact I had just finished the letter K, I’ve done five letters since then and also managed to catch up with the back-stitch square round each one which I will use to stitch the pages together when I am making my book.

Last night I managed to finish the letter P, just in time before going on holiday. I say ‘just in time’ as I’m taking the pattern sheet with QRST on holiday with me! I think this one is a thrush with it’s speckled breast, though I feel there’s a touch too much yellow really. I love the fuchsias dangling down.

Here’s the previous four letters. I think L maybe a wagtail, M could be a yellowhammer. The next two are easy, N is a nuthatch, we get them feeding regularly in the garden over winter. When you see the shape of their head you can appreciate why they are in the woodpecker family. O is a bullfinch, they are very striking birds here in the UK as we don’t have many brightly coloured birds. This is a male bullfinch, the females have a much duller breast. Again, they feed regularly on the seed feeders over winter.

We get a lot of finches in winter in the garden, they love the sunflower seed hearts and get through them so quickly we bought a sack this year. We have goldfinch, greenfinch, siskins and occasional chaffinch. We’ve stopped putting seed out for them this week as the RSPB are asking people not to use seed feeders from May to October to help stop the spread of a fungal disease which is affecting finches in particular. We still have the peanuts and the fat balls up which the tits and the blackbirds love.

We have at least two sets of birds nesting in the garden, there are great tits in a nest box and blackbirds in the ivy. The female blackbird is very tame, coming within a couple of feet of me when I’m gardening or sitting having a cup of tea, hoping for a tasty worm! I’ve named her Betty and her other half is Basil! We have two other female identifiable blackbirds visiting the garden, so they are Ruby and Dot – Dot has a tiny white spot on her cheek!

I’m looking forward to seeing all the baby birds when I come back from holiday.