As I write this, I can hear (am almost deafened by!) young starlings as they clamour for food. The nest is in the corner of the roof above me and the parents are keeping up a pretty constant supply of food, some gathered from our feeders and some good wriggling offerings gleaned from the surrounding area. I reckon they are fed about three times in a four minute period, good going I would have thought. The chicks certainly sound healthy enough! There have been a couple of panic moments with both parents and blackbirds alarm calling, both times the magpie was the cause – strutting along the roof towards the nest area. I’m not sure if it could get under the eaves but I chased it away, just in case.

Pigeons are hogging the feeders again now they have youngsters, as well as arguing with any other pigeon that comes near. The posturing and wing flapping as they try to manoeuvre their opponent off the feeder is hilarious, and usually ends with a crash landing from one of them on our sloping conservatory roof, accompanied by loud scrabbling noises as they try to get a purchase on the slippery surface.

Siskins are well in evidence, although we have now lost the redpolls, and as they breed in the conifer wood the other side of the river we see them up until the late summer. They then disappear until February in a normal year but in 2020 they came back well before Christmas and have been with us ever since.

I saw my first young blackbird this morning, rather later than normal, but the first brood was lost to the magpies and the next nest was in a more sensible place, thank goodness.

It’s really quiet and peaceful (apart from starlings and pigeons), just the song of the blackbird, occasional call of the ravens as they fly up the river, and the ‘chak’ of the jackdaws in the copse. There are two pairs nesting in adjoining trees – good to see them in natural sites instead of coming out of chimney pots!

I still find it hard to believe that we have a buzzard sitting on her eggs about 200 feet from where I am sitting. I’m also surprised at how they have now been accepted by the copse ‘hierarchy’ of crows, magpies and jays. Previously, a buzzard perching in the copse would be ‘outed’ very quickly by the local gang, magpies going as far as pulling tail feathers to encourage it to shift. However, now they are nesting they are left alone, even when Bosco, the male, sits high in the Italian poplar he is left in peace. Apart from sometimes calling on returning to the nest, the buzzards are being very quiet, if you didn’t know they were there you would never guess.

Below – The garden at the start of May.

Our weather has been ‘changeable’ for the start of May, frosts continuing from the constant frosty nights of April, together with lovely sun, pouring rain, plus thunder, lightning and hail storms. The plants keep growing though and a few days of quieter weather allowed the amelanchier to flower untroubled by wind.