Nature's bird food

      We don't know what happens to these apples to make them go like this but while the orchard floor is covered in frozen snow these dried and wizened apples are providing an alternative feast for the birds. They have the look of the dried fruit in bags in the health shop so perhaps this is just the avian version.
       Any whole apples or apple cores are being picked clean or even cleaner!
       Times are hard for our feathered friends, typified by the heron that stands hunched in the middle of the field in front of our house, a miserable grey figure in a white wasteland, all of his feeding places frozen over. He could have some of my roach and sprat dead baits but he flies off as soon you approach.
       It doesn't get much tougher than this for those lovely birds, we hope he survives.