Last weekend I spent an hour looking out of the window as part of the “Big Garden Bird Watch” and how many birds did I see in that hour? None, zero, nada! This is rather unusual, as there are normally a fairly wide range of birds to be seen from our windows. This morning just before I sat down to breakfast, I glanced out the window and noticed that there were a few birds about. So I decided to do a quick count, over the space of five minutes I spotted: some red wings (Turdus iliacus), a pair of jackdaws (Corvus monedula), a couple of chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), several blackbirds (Turdus merula) and some woodpigeons (Columba palumbus). By the end of breakfast I had added a few blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), a great tit (Parus major), a pair of crows (Corvus corone) (which I am hoping will nest again this year), and a magpie (Pica pica). This is a far more representative sample (but far from a full list) of the bird life we usually see round here, so normal service has been resumed.