Birds and the Big Freeze

When the weather got really cold a few days ago I started putting out some food and water for the birds. They have been coming in to feed in some numbers and it is interesting to watch the interactions between species which are affected of course by the presence of scarce food. There was a wood pigeon today which was feeding on seed I had put on the low well wall. A moorhen arrived and started feeding and the pigeon stopped eating and seemed to be staring. Two more moorhens arrived and moved nearer the pigeon. At that point it flapped its wings and the moorhens backed down and left. Meanwhile a moorhen was on the grass surrounded by fifteen or so pigeons started taking a liitle run at individual pigeons each of whom backed away. So one pigeon beats three moorhens and one moorhen beats fifteen pigeons. Go figure.
The weather also brought in a sparrowhawk which was the first time I have seen a sparrowhawk perched in the garden and also a partridge which I think was a grey partridge. My id was not certain so I can't count it as a new species. Apart from that it was the usual suspects various tits, blackbirds, dunnocks, chaffinches and robins plus some distant commotion as the resident crows chased off the heron.