Sir,

Further to Mr. Yates's letter last week, as well as about a dozen Redwings, we have also had a flock of about 20 Greenfinches during this cold spell in our garden. Four would be eating on the sunflower seed holder, and the rest awaiting their turn in the surrounding trees. The seeds they dropped had eager Thrushes, Blackbirds, Chaffinches, our two Robins, and, of course, the Tits waiting below.

The Redwings, we learnt on the computer, come from Iceland and have come further south and into gardens because of the very cold weather. I saved the life of one - it was petrified by a cat two inches away. I chased the cat away and the Redwing recovered itself and flew away thank goodness. They are obviously not used to cats and being ground feeding birds, like Blackbirds, they are very vunerable.

Did you know that the more birds that come to feed in your garden the safer they are. It only takes one bird to raise the alarm and they all fly away. If you listen to the garden birds, they all make a variation of a 'chichichi' repeating noise as an alarm, so listen to their alarm noise and try it yourself if you see a cat before they do!

I see, too, the Wagtails are back in Tenby now. Are they earlier this year?

Shirley Draper,

Merlins Gardens,

Tenby.