It is still winter and spring far away here in the North. The last few weeks have been difficult for the birds, heavy winds and blizzards day after day and temperatures sometimes well below zero. Feeding the birds has saved lives and the birds come to the feeding trays in the garden in flocks. It is nice to know that more and more people have started feeding the birds and are making it part of their lives.

In the end of January we had the Garden Birdwatch Weekend here in Iceland. People keep count of the birds that visit their garden and the numbers are gathered by Fuglavernd, Birdlife Iceland.

This year we counted birds here in the garden on Sunday, January 30. It was windy and snowing.

This is a list of the birds that visited the garden:
Rock Pigeon (Bjargdúfa) 9
Raven (Hrafn) 2
Starling (Stari) 5
Blackbird (Svartþröstur) 14
Redpoll (Auðnutittlingur) 38
Common Crossbill  (Krossnefur) 5

Photos are from the last few days.

Winter solstice, the shortest day (4 hours, 8 min.) and longest night, are upon us. Last night we enjoyed the full moon along with the Northern lights. Now the sun will start to rise higher in the sky every day, something that most of us look forward to, especially here in the high North.

The Sun stays in its place in the cosmos but as the Earth revolves around its orbit and around the Sun, the seasons change. For us here in the Northern hemisphere the days become a tiny bit longer with each day, tomorrow a few seconds longer. 

Winter solstice, or Yule, is the oldest winter celebration in the world. In ancient times when the seasons and weather played an essential role in people’s lives, when we were hunters, there was a lot to celebrate. Making it through the winter was harsh and when the days started to get longer it was time for optimism.

And despite everything we feel optimistic in the Yuletide and hope that in the coming years there will be a little less poverty, less hunger, fever wars, less discrimination, better environmental management – and above all peace on Earth for all men (- all living beings and plants).

Redpolls are the most common birds in our garden as before. There are about twenty every day and sometimes up to seventy. Since a decline in the population in the winter 2018-19 they have been growing in numbers. They  eat the sunflower seeds from the feeding trays along with thrushes and Common Crossbills but the big old trees probably play a part in the popularity of the garden.

The Redpolls’ main feed during the coldest months is birch seeds and the seeds from spruce cones. As seeds are scarce now here in the south  and the earth covered in snow they come into gardens in search of food.

Luckily more people are putting out feed for the birds nowadays so they have a better chance of surviving the coldest weathers.

This little Goldcrest pair was diligently combing a Siberian fir (Abies sibirica) in the garden in search of food when I managed after many attempts to catch a picture of them. These delightful little beings are difficult to photograph as they are constantly on the move.

With added speed and a high ISO I managed at last to freeze a few moments in their lives.

Nikon Z50 og Nikkor 200-500mm lense. ISO 5000, speed 1/1000 og aperture 6,3.