Clothing collections for charity

Residents may have received plastic bags through their doors recently with requests for donations of clothing.

Before donating clothing in this way, it is always best to check out the companies involved. Whilst they may not be acting illegally, many are profit-making businesses which donate a very small proportion of their profits to charity, and if this charity is based in a foreign country, there is no knowing what may happen to any money they receive.

You can also check these out very easily by typing the names of any or all of the companies named on the bag into Google or another search engine, making sure that any links you follow up are not to the websites of those companies themselves.

It is usually best to deal with a registered charity based in the UK, as your donations have a much better chance of being used for the purposes stated.

For more information, see such websites as
www.joswinson.org.uk/pages/boguscharities.html
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3430119.stm
www.charity-commission.gov.uk/news/bogus.asp

Unusual birds

If you are interested in birds, look out for some unusual visitors following the recent cold spell.

There has been a large flock of Redpolls this week, with up to 50 visiting nyger feeders along with Siskins.

Redpoll, Mains Estate, 18th Jan 2010

Watch out also for Bramblings. Several have been seen in the estate this week. They look rather like chaffinches and often mix with them, but are more orange, with a white rump, and with a pattern like scales on the back. The male has a darker head than the female.

Female Brambling, Mains Estate, 22nd Jan 2010

Fieldfares became frequent visitors to gardens all over the country, including the Mains Estate. These birds are quite common in the countryside, but do not usually visit gardens as much as in the recent cold spell. They may still be around.

Please let us know if you see any unusual birds in the Estate. We would love to know about them.

Bird list, December 2009

Birds seen in the Mains Estate during December

During the cold spell of weather we have had some more unusual visitors, including Redpolls and Fieldfares.

Blackbird Black-headed gull Bluetit Bullfinch Carrion crow Chaffinch Coal tit Common gull Dunnock Fieldfare Goldfinch Great tit Greenfinch House sparrow

Jackdaw Magpie Mallard Pied wagtail Redpoll Robin Rook Siskin Snipe Song thrush Starling Treecreeper Wood pigeon Wren