A time for dinky birds and winter-kings

Airedale, West Yorkshire All of these birds – none weighing more than an ounce, and the smallest of them barely tipping the scales against a 10p piece – have a crisp, spruce lookAt this time of year, it can sometimes seem as though the bare trees have been decked out with toy birds. The broad-spreading alder across the river is tinged purple-pink (the fuchsia-coloured catkins persist deep into the winter) and the branches are busy with tinkling finches: green siskins, bright motley g