This morning deep snow is making life hard for the birds. We can help them out with food, but water is also a problem in such low temperatures. Where the snow has dripped off the roof forming long icicles we watch an ingenious and determined blue tit attempting to drink the drips of water accumulating at the tip. Time and again he grasps hold of the slender spear of ice, slowly slides down and falls off. If a bird’s face can ever show steely resolve being replaced by puzzled surprise, this one does. My attempt to photograph it fails – but watch this space. Instead I take a boiling kettle out to the birdbath and attempt to provide what can only be a temporary water supply.

Enjoying watching birds in the garden has encouraged us to visit bird sanctuaries elsewhere. The birds here are more accessible and easier to photograph. Images of ducks and geese, many of them exotic species, can be found in these galleries. What wildlife there is was photographed in East Africa, many years ago and is even more exotic.