ANGRY BIRDS!

There is a sense of urgency among the birds which inhabit our garden, stopped in their nest building tracks by the snow and icy wind,s they have returned to their springtime chores with a will, and having been unwell for the past couple of days ,I have had plenty of time to watch their antics from my comfy chair in the conservatory

Squabbles over the ownership of particularly choice twigs, or strands of dead grass break out every few minutes and mighty funny it can be to watch.
A female Blackbird, having spent an age attempting to detach a choice piece of dead plant material from the herb garden, wall finally tugged it free so suddenly that she ended up sitting back on her tail, and looking, most undignified.
Her troubles were not over, as her activities had been noted by a rival female who caught up the other end and a comical tug-of-war began which lasted for some time, at last, the original owner of the piece chased away her rival, having dropped the prize in her eagerness to see the interloper of the premises.
In an instant, a third blackbird bounced in and flew off with the deserted bit of dead plant.

Crows are well worth watching if you like a laugh as they constantly steal twigs from each other's nests, this happens so often that it is a wonder that their nests are ever finished. I swear I have seen the same forked birch twig change beaks half a dozen times in the space of a few minutes!

We have two pairs of Nuthatch in the garden, one pair has chosen a site in on old gnarled old plum tree, the other pair, surprisingly, are showing a great deal of interest in one of our sparrow boxes and I wait with interest to see if they take up residence among the noisiest possible neighbours.

A large male Pheasant, who has lived like a lord, feasting on peanuts all winter appeared today with a couple of females and showed them around the garden with the air of an Estate Agent showing a property to prospective buyers. They seemed quite taken with a couple of the less salubrious parts of the garden, areas seldom disturbed by any activity on the part of the gardener. Will they nest there? Time will tell, a couple of years ago a partridge successfully raised her brood here.

So much bustle, it is hard to believe that barely a week ago the garden was buried under a foot of snow with the birds fighting for survival, they are still fighting, but suddenly dead grass has become more important than suet.