Written by Paul Beecroft.

My garden is a busy place no matter what month of the year it is. As I sit at my computer today (April 20th) in full view of my rear garden the sun is shining and there is not a cloud in the sky. My chocolate Labrador is in her usual spot laying in the sun until she has had enough and will come back in to cool off and then the cycle will start again. 

My bird table seems busier than usual. At 6.00 am this morning the two squirrels that have dray a couple of doors up from me were busy getting the peanuts out of the bird feeder. Up until last month, they would bury them all over the garden, in the lawn and in flower pots. The magpies would watch this intently and when the squirrel left, down they would come and dig up the peanut. The squirrels had gone by 6.30 and the birds took over. 

Today the starlings have visited along with house sparrows, dunnocks, blue tits, robins, thrush, chaffinch, blackbirds, collared doves, wood pigeons and of course the magpies. Twice a day two goldfinches will appear. Each perched on opposite sides of the feeder helping themselves to the sunflower seeds. From time to time the great spotted woodpecker will visit but not very often. Absent at the moment but will hopefully be back at some stage is the long-tailed and great tit and also the wren. I have two nest boxes in my garden. One is for blue tits. They started building a nest last year but for some reason then stopped but kept returning to the box to remove the nesting material and were obviously moving somewhere else. The other box is for swifts but in three years there have been no takers until about a week ago. It is now occupied by starlings.

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Although not actually in my garden, it can be just as interesting in the sky above my garden. It is not uncommon to see up to fifteen red kites circling overhead, sometimes down to rooftop level. They often give incredible flying displays. From time to time common buzzards appear as well and if I am really lucky, which I was a few months back a female peregrine passed over.

Written by Paul Beecroft.