April should see most of our common garden birds settled in their territories with nesting well under way. Our blackbirds nested last year in an overgrown clematis, but as this has now collapsed they will have to find somewhere new. During the winter they faced competition from around ten other blackbirds, but most of these will have been migrants escaping the cold winters of Northern Europe and they have now returned there. A close relative, the song thrush, has been absent from our garden for several years now, but as a male has recently been feeding here and singing enthusiastically this may be about to change.

Greenfinches seem to be on the increase in this area and a pair has bred for the last two years in a dense conifer only a few yards from our front door. The numbers recorded nationally have been drastically reduced in recent years following an outbreak of the disease trichomonosis, but they are hopefully over the worst of this.

They are one of our most handsome garden birds with their delicate shades of green and a well- defined band of yellow in the wing.

It has been a good year for robins with a relatively mild winter. The pair of robins in our garden has been very active in discouraging any interlopers; far from being cute, they are ferocious in defending their territory, even, on occasion, killing the intruder. They nested last year behind the ivy that clings to the garden shed, although they are renowned for using a wide variety of unusual nest sites such as compost bins, flower pots, kettles and car tyres. With their charming appearance and the tame way in which they approach the gardener, it is no wonder that they have been voted Britain’s National Bird.