...well, in fact, more than one other stupid idea. The first was that in the garden I came up with these little... well, tunes for each of the birds. They were jingles, really, very short, and I'd sing them. And the robin comes no-ow-ow! Blue tit lands! Hail! The little Winter ki-ing! Chattering, whistling, arguing, starlings! The blackbird's bill is as bright as the sun; his plumage dark as night. I thought I could sing them all on the mic and make an interwoven garden song.

Three times, I think, I scared him away from his sunbathing. See how he can open out his feathers? Maybe it encourages the parasites to move making them somewhat easier to preen away? He sang in between preening sessions, making sure the neighbourhood knew that he was there and this place was his place. This morning, he was singing as Falca "cheeped". He flew down and they perched face to face on a twig. She begged, wings fluttering, like a chick. He puffed up his red breast

It is hard when the world can be so darn beautiful not to just stand and stand and stare until your exhausted body succumbs to gravity. I was listening to robins and wrens. Pigeons and magpies were starting to roost. A moorhen settled into the reed bed. Small flies were illuminated by the setting sun like stars of their own miniature universe. A woman riding a horse and talking on the phone rode past. Two men jogged with earbuds. Cars passed on the road nearby. And all the ti

That cover shot is, believe it or not, a blue tit in hawthorn. This is a robin in lilac and jasmine. Here, a goldfinch. And Mrs B with a beakful of moss to line her nest.

And yes, I did go to the rec to feed them. With the neighbour's dog. The park offered up some badger evidence too: a latrine and the crawl space where I suspect the badgers travel from the park to the gardens. I let the dog off the lead and she ran up to a child, jumped up and knocked him over. Fulsome apologies. Thankfully understanding mother. Child will be traumatised. On trauma - it's no fun being a pigeon. Constant one-up-man-ship.

I lay by Kairos dreaming of extinction, extirpation, the haunting of lynx and gyr falcon and wolf, bear, pine marten. And above a kite roosted. There was a confrontation with a crow and one of them made an extraordinary noise of chuckling water over stones or in a vessel. And then the kite calling, calling, calling, right above me, from a tree. And then the kite made another sound that I'd never heard, like a strong wind through branches. I had the recorder on but it had stop

It's such a relief to see the sun! In fact, I was very warm when I walked across town to collect my car after its service. Real heat in that sunshine. And such pure azure! For a while, a single magpie shouted from next door's tree. I don't like to see them alone. Not (just) because of the superstition, but in case the mate has indeed been killed. The robins are getting on with life. The male is still a little less timid than he used to be, but the female is just as wary.

.... just keep watching!!!!

A few days back, I spent a lovely half hour with Falco - who actually blessed me with a little bit of subsong! It was very windy and I remembered how both Bobbit and Tane would often subsing on windy days. I wonder if they don't want to perch high up in case they get blown off the trees? Or if they know their voice won't carry so far? Or if there's less need as no one is out exploring in the wind?

A mini record of my day out attending two of the Sense Ability sessions. Just some pictures of the space and the sound I accidentally recorded!

You know, presumably, because I have told you, that when I run through the fields I can stop and look back because I have registered a badger footprint? Well, that didn't happen when I saw them in my garden. My mind completely denied the possibility until I looked at these pictures 36 hours later. I shared them in the badger Whats App group and received a definitive YES, badger. Yes, blood. They asked if I had tracked the badger and I had to admit that no, I hadn't even ackno

This blue tit is noticeable because his head is more brilliantly blue than the others. I have not seen the long-tailed tits for a while and after I saw that sick coal tit, I have seen one on a couple of occasions. But the coal tits came alone, so it was hard to tell if the same one kept returning or a few made visits. I guess now that at least two did. The great tits are becoming a little less flighty. One ate a peanut in the front lilac while I was close and he kept on speak

Although I do think the female robin has started a new nest, she has still been in the garden occasionally. But one reason has been to chase away another robin. She pursued this other robin with much aggression and the other one was screaming. I think that the other robin is the one that I saw looking bedraggled on the day the babies died. For a couple of mornings, I saw it - and it would hop around on the ground, hiding in the vegetation or in the gap between the conservator

The Majestic Oak... I went to visit this tree the day after the baby robins died. I was looking for consolation and the tree gave it. Majesty is living into death and dying into life. Death is part of all our lives - the cells that die all the time... the cells that don't die are cancer. And death is not to end of becoming... it is the start of a stage of becoming compost.... I am reading Michael Marder's Dump Philosophy and the book's not that easy to read but the premise f

Feeding the birds also means feeding the rats and squirrels, which I don't mind. I feel rather sorry for rats. It's their scurrying that upsets me, I think. Same thing with muntjacs: they run with that curved back posture, or hunched back, which translates in my own body into a sensation of seeking protection... that running for cover, self-protective stance... it triggers my empathy. My first pet rat, Ratty, was such a delight. So affectionate and playful. Clever too. It's a

This actually refers to an incident in the copse. Though the squirrel below is a mother waiting for a safe time to get peanuts from my garden. So, I was in the copse and went to sit with the Juvenile Oak. I was listening to birds and I saw a squirrel who ran up a tree. As I sat, i thought I could hear a creature rustling around just behind my right shoulder. I stayed very still. Eventually I realised that my ears had deceived me and it was the squirrel who was inspecting what

This is so sad... I had made this up as a draft to tell a different story... OK, so the story is that at Waterloo Station I offered to help a couple get their pram down some stairs and the mother thrust a baby into my arms, saying "Great, hold the baby!" I took the baby down the stairs, talking to him, and looked around for the parents, whom I could not see in the crowd! They were still at the top of the stairs with a second helper assisting the father with the pram while the

So, I go out and there's this robin just standing in the hanging feeder looking half dead. All fluffed up, not very responsive, feathers missing around the eye. I was freaked out. Then it flew and I thought... oh... and I realised that it was wet... they look very bedraggled when wet. Then there were two robins alarming in the front lilac. Suddenly I knew. I went to the back of the garden. No feeding. No cheeping. Finally I went to look. Two tiny bodies. With feathers, but th

...is that both parents are now feeding actual chicks who cheep when a parent arrives with insects. They hatched on 6th March, which is quite absurd. One day, I was anxious as I hadn't heard cheeping and so, when the parents were foraging, I looked at the nest. As soon as my shape appeared (shade?) two beaks opened wide. I backed away, guilty as a thief. I am not sure if there are only two babies, but I didn't want to hang around any longer.

he spends a lot of time on the fence. Sometimes both he and Falca (aka Mottled Breast) stand on the fence, maybe 15-18 feet apart. One really sweet thing though: Falco was on the fence and Falca in the bushes. He gave a little call and she flew to meet him. She stood, fluttering her wings like a baby, and he fed her. Another time, in the evening, I went out to put the cat food on the fox plate. A robin was alarming on the front lilac and a second robin flew down and joined i