The baby blackbirds are now fully-fledged rowdy teenagers! I saw them for the first time yesterday - two speckled, still slightly fluffy, punky youngsters, flapping round the yard still demanding that they were fed by dad despite the bird table being right in front of them! They sat on the fence and squawked while dad flew back and forth with beakfuls of seed. They're obviously quite keen on the yard as I've never seen so much bird poo in one place before!

Shortly afterwards three rooks arrived and ate much of the bread. I guess maybe they were a young family, but they all looked like grown-up birds to me (can't say I've ever seen a juvenile rook before). I don't mind them too much because they make less of a mess than the bloody pidgeons, and even they manage less of a mess than the squirrel who has decided rather than the peanut feeder (which is caged in metal and hence not easy to chew through) the best thing is now the fat balls that come in the plastic mesh. The tits love them, but so do squirrels and once a damned squirrel has chewed through the mesh and the ball has fallen on the floor, rooks and squirrels and pidgeons make short work of it.

Harumph, garden politics.