It is thrilling to see the nesting activities of our feathered friends at the moment. There’s so much carting about of nesting materials and food for babies that we’re delighted to see all of this first hand. I’ve seen birds carrying what looks like more than their own weight in twigs and straw. I’ve seen piles of moss in beaks so big that the carrier can’t fly in a straight line.

We are terrified of disturbing nesting birds so we’re not poking about to look for nests but we are pretty sure we have a tally that can’t be counted on one hand and maybe not on two!!! There are blackbirds in the camellia, robins in the rhododendron and wrens in the laurel…..as well as assorted starlings and sparrows in the roof space of our studio/office. I’d bet that somewhere on our property there are nesting tits and finches too although I’ve not spotted any obvious signs…..

The sad thing is though that we keep finding discarded eggs. I found the broken shell yesterday and David found this whole, very cold, egg on the path today. I don’t know much about eggs, other than hens eggs but although these are the same size, I guess they are different species because one is heavily speckled and the other is completely plain. I may be wrong about that, knowing the differences in look of our hens, even the ones of the same type lay completely different eggs.

We know a magpie has been on the prowl because we’ve seen it and we know there is at least one cuckoo because we’ve been hearing their song for days now. There are all sorts of reasons for discarded eggs and I suppose on balance the other birds are coming out on top because we have huge numbers of beautiful birds here but nonetheless it’s a shame to see ones that won’t make it.

Sometimes the sound of birdsong is the only thing you can hear – and not just because I am so bloody deaf, because it’s the only sound!!! That’s when I like it best.

Wow, last year, I was reliving Live Aid....