I'm afraid I'm a bit of a slacker when it comes to feeding the birds in the garden. I usually only feed them in the winter and then miss days when I'm on double shifts at work. Despite this a Marsh Tit has stuck with me through all of the freezing weather. After another foodless Tuesday I filled up the feeder this morning and within half an hour 2 Marsh Tits were feeding simultaneously. So possibly there were 2 all along.
Just been reading an article on the BBC news website about dozens of Starlings which died mysteriously in Romania. Locals naturally presumed it was a plague of avian flu but analysis of the birds gizzards showed they had died of alcohol poisoning. Turned out they had been feeding on waste products from a nearby wine production unit. If I were a Starling how would I prefer to exit lifes brief stage? Poisoned by alcoholic effluent from a Romanian wine factory or ripped apart by an avian predator considerably larger than myself. It'a close call.