The pair of robins for whom our garden is their territory (policed with considerable violence at times, in contrast to the benign greetings card image often portrayed), successfully raised a couple of chicks about a month ago. Up until a last week, the parents were still feeding the fledglings in the garden. As a result all four family members became increasingly bold around us.

The youngsters seem to have moved on now, but the parents remain, and are still very bold, the female in particular. She will come very close to us to get food that we put down. Yesterday she even came into the kitchen as if to demand some food!

The blue tit chicks must be nearly ready to fledge. A quick check with the camera yesterday and all seven look to be present and correct. I expect they’ll fly this week.

Haven’t seen the whitethroat for about a week now.

The blackbirds are building another nest beyond the garden as I watched the female gathering great bundles of moss or grass from our lawn.

Our resident pair of wood pigeons, who we have named Kylie and Jason, are currently building one of their structurally unsound nest-things in our walnut tree. Will they never get any better at it?