The cold and snowy weather has finally brought some birds to our feeder! It’s been nearly empty until now. I can’t remember a winter with so few birds to look at.

Today I saw a hawfinch here for the first time. The Swedish name stenknäck means “stone crusher” and the Estonian suurnokk means “big beak” and there’s no doubt that the names fit! According to my bird book it eats cherry pits, after crushing them with its beak. The book says it visits feeders to eat hemp seeds, but here it seems to prefer sunflower seeds.

It’s clear that there is a power hierarchy among different breeds of birds. Sometimes it correlates with size. Most smaller birds avoid jays and magpies; blue tits and great tits avoid nuthatches. But not always: the hawfinch barely needs to turn its head, and blackbirds flee.