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Their image has adorned many a Christmas card decorating homes up and down the land, but venture out into your garden over the coming days and you'll hopefully come face-to-face with your own resident robin.At least one robin has made my garden its

While the growling frogs in my mum's shallow pond have gone quiet (“and who can blame them, the pond completely froze over last week”, observed my mother), a pair of robins has been busy in the garden of my mother-in-law. Despite the bad weather

When it's cold outside, and none of the family offer to join me in the garden for a spot of tidying up, it's nice having the company of some feathered friends instead. During winter the birds are bolder and friendlier than ever, with robins

to be a robin or a blackbird - both may sing at night and have similar songs.I'm reasonably good at identifying birdsong - I can tell a robin apart from a blackbird, a blue tit from a great tit, and identify more distinct calls such as that of the chiff

skips for more wood and was experimenting with designs for robins, wrens and starlings. In the wild, birds nest in a variety of situations such as holes in trees and hedgerows, which tend not to be that abundant in gardens. A snug box with an appropriate

Last winter, when I went to great trouble to feed the birds in my garden, my offerings were largely ignored. This winter, I'm trying again, leaving seeds, chopped apples and suet pellets for ground-feeding birds such as robins, blackbirds

This time last year I was bemoaning the lack of birds in my garden. There was little point in taking part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, as the only feathered visitors to my plot were pigeons (although a robin, blackbird and a pair of grey

, and a robin put in a brief appearance in the bird bath. A flock of starlings descended onto the lawn, and I needed my binoculars to count them - at least 21, with a few making it to the peanut feeders too.And the total bird count:Blackbird: 2Collared

, they provide a brilliant pit stop for the blackbirds, thrushes and robins. The great thing is that the hedge runs alongside the bay window where we eat most of the family meals, so we get to enjoy their feasting as we eat. The hedge has been there for years

blackthorn tree at the edge of the plot and I've been religiously topping them up since the beginning of the cold snap in December. This has been greatly appreciated by my resident robin, which has lately been almost spherical it had puffed up its feathers so