DURING the past few weeks we have been pleasantly entertained by the birds in our garden.

Like many other people, we have established various feeding stations around the exterior of the house, although we do this only during the winter season.

I am aware that some experts recommend the feeding of garden birds either throughout the entire year or not at all, but it was interesting to note, in the mild December days before Christmas, that few birds came to feed.

Only when the frosts, snow and chill weather arrived did our feeding stations become busy and then, when the weather turned milder again, our feathered friends departed to their usual areas of operation. I am sure the debate about whether to feed birds throughout the year will continue, one argument against this being that our efforts to feed them make them somewhat lazy!

It has been interesting to observe the species which have responded to our invitation. By far the most numerous were the blue tits, with their cousins, the great tits, a close second. It is difficult to count them with any degree of accuracy, but I reckon our blue tits number something in the region of 20, with about a dozen great tits always around the place.

We've also had very occasional visits by a small flock of long-tailed tits and also a solitary coal tit. He seems to enjoy the company of his many cousins and cheerfully associates with them.

Also very numerous are greenfinches, which seldom visit the garden on other occasions, and we've also had a single male chaffinch. From time to time, a male bullfinch makes an appearance, but I have not seen him for several weeks, and sometimes we are delighted to see a small charm of goldfinches.

We have a lot of house sparrows around our home and they are always present around the feeders, along with a few quiet hedge sparrows - otherwise known as dunnocks - a robin, a wren, a pair of collared doves, wood pigeons, a magpie and even a pair of siskins.

Blackbirds also come along, invariably to pick up titbits which have fallen to the ground, and a thrush has also joined him. But one curious absence is the starling. No starlings have ever come to visit our feeding stations, even though they are sometimes to be seen in the locality.

Notable among the visitors was a greater spotted woodpecker, who attacked the nut holder with his power-driven beak, but perhaps the saddest was a brave blue tit with only one leg.

Despite his disability, he managed to find a perch and then cope with the struggle of clinging to the mesh of the feeder while pecking the nuts. He came to us on several occasions and I hope our modest efforts at providing food help him survive the winter.

On the subject of birds in the garden, the next Big Garden Birdwatch will take place during the weekend of January 24 and 25.

This is organised by the RSPB and has become very much a part of bird-watching life in this country. In fact, I believe it is the largest birdwatch in the world!

All you have to do is spend just one hour observing the birds in your garden during that weekend and make a note of those you see. You should note the highest number of each species seen at any one time, not the total number you see during the whole hour as some birds might return several times while you are counting. And you should only record those actually seen in the garden, not those flying overhead.

If you do not have a garden, you can do this in the nearest park or even in the grounds of a school. Teachers may wish to undertake this as a class activity - by ringing 0870 608 6301, you can obtain a Big Schools' Birdwatch pack.

A special form can be obtained from the RSPB. The local office is the North of England Office, RSPB, 4 Benton Terrace, Sandyford Road, Newcastle on Tyne NE2 1QU, 0191 212 0353, or you could visit www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch and even submit your return that way.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of this popular means of counting our wild garden birds and the results will be published in April.

Apart from showing any decline or increase in our garden bird population - an important aspect of ornithology - this annual check also offers the unexpected. Who knows what kind of bird might pay a surprise visit to your garden?

One year around Christmas, a pheasant came to visit us and established a roost in one of our trees, right outside our front windows. We called him Ferdinand and he sat and watched our family enjoying their Christmas dinner, but we made sure he got his share of our festivities.

Unfortunately, the tree blew down in a gale. He survived, although we've not seen him since.

The origin of the names of villages is always of interest and I was chatting to someone recently who mentioned Redmire, that delightful Wensleydale village not far from Castle Bolton.

He wondered if the name came from some iron-rich springs and bogs in the locality - some springs can be discoloured by the presence of iron ore, which produces rust-coloured water.

Years ago, I knew of bogs in and around the North York Moors which contained rust-coloured water due to the iron ore in the district and it was this kind of additive that the Victorians regarded as healthy when they made such a fuss about spas.

It is more likely, however, that Redmire is a derivation of reed and mere. The old English for reed was hreod and one of Redmire's earlier names was Ridmer. I believe there used to be a pond or marsh along the lane near the church and the presence of reeds would give rise to the village name.

Later, that marshy area, which eventually became a pond, was rich in a type of clay which was used to make pottery, bricks and tiles. Clay pits, a kiln and other buildings were established here, so that the area became known as the Tile Sheds, and, for a time, this was a thriving business in Redmire. I believe it came to an end about 140 years ago and that some of its products can be viewed in Bolton Castle.

On the topic of Bolton Castle, I came across a curious fact recently. Although the castle is so close to the River Ure, standing on its elevated site high above the dale, no part of the river can be seen from it. I must admit I have never checked this statement, but it provides a very good reason for another trip into Wensleydale.

The old skill of making clay pots in Redmire reminds me of such vessels which were once popular in farmhouses and country cottages.

Known as pankins or pankin pots, they were large and very deep earthenware containers often used for keeping bread and other foods, or even for preserving eggs which had been "put down".

Their tops were usually larger than their bottoms and many of them sported a lid. Quite often, they were glazed to a deep brown colour and were usually to be found standing on the cool floor of the larder.

There was a similar kind of vessel known as the pankin dish which was of similar structure and design, but by no means as deep. It was more of a dish than a large jar, but it was made from the same material and glazed in the same way.

I am not sure whether the name of our domestic pan comes from these vessels, but containers like our pankins have been found in ancient burial mounds and tumuli, which suggests they are of a very old and well-tested design.

It is highly likely that our domestic pan has developed from such early examples. The name pan, of course, applies to a host of different kitchen utensils which are fashioned for specific purposes, eg milk pan, egg pan, sauce pan, frying pan or chip pan.

In the dialect of the North Riding of Yorkshire, however, the word pan has another meaning - or perhaps, to be more accurate, it used to have another meaning because it seems to have disappeared from use. It meant to work at something, to tackle a job of some kind or to commence a determined effort to complete some kind of task. I have never heard this word in common use, but apparently it could describe someone's work efforts, ie "thoo pans badly!" or "thoo pans well!