Winter in Britain? We love it!

YES, it's that time of year again. It feels like no-one has turned the lights on outside at all today and you're beginning to wonder if you will ever feel your toes again.

- JENNY BENNION 

But to hundreds of thousands of birds each year, a typical UK winter day sounds absolutely ideal.

Every year our skies are filled with migrating winter birds for whom our damp, grey, cold weather is positively balmy compared to the sub-zero temperatures of the summer homes.

So, keep your eyes peeled and you might spot some of these wonderful winter visitors.

Fieldfares and redwings are two members of the thrush family. Fieldfares are slightly bigger than blackbirds with a grey head and tail and brown wings and back.

What stops fieldfares from joining the ranks of the little brown jobby' birds is the jaunty splosh of orange on their throat and chest.

Redwings are smaller and swap out the orange splodges for distinctive red patches on the underside of each wing. Fieldfares and redwings both migrate here from Scandinavia and spend their winters flocking together and gorging on berries in our hedgerows and trees, as well as foraging in fields.