I have one indulgence. It’s my bird table. Every morning, when I let out the chickens, I fill up my bird table. A scoop of wild bird seed goes on the table, the sunflower seed hopper, peanut feeder, nyjer seeds and the fat ball container all get topped up. Bread crusts and suitable kitchen scraps are chopped and added to the table too. I am rewarded with hundreds of birds each day, coming to get their fill of my table’s goodies.

Something strange has been happening recently though. The fat ball feeder, which holds three fat balls, is being emptied every day at the moment. I put three fat balls in first thing in the morning and by the end of the day they are all gone. Every last crumb. I didn’t understand it. Even in the depths of winter it normally takes 3-4 days for them to get eaten. What’s happening?

Today, when I returned home from work for lunch I discovered the answer. A pair of magpies has worked out how to grab hold of the bars and scoff the lot! Still, while they are being sated on my fat balls, they’re not stealing chicks or eggs from the nests of songbirds so I’ll just carry on putting three balls in each morning and letting the greedy magpies pinch the lot.