We have four pairs of birds nesting in the conifer on our patio this year. I don’t think we’ve ever had so many! The first to arrive was a blackbird. We’ve never had a blackbird in the ‘apartment block’ before, but we watched, and there they were, Mr and Mrs Blackbird, obviously checking out the place, looking for leaks in the roof or whatever it is that birds do. Then the robin turned up. I don’t know if it was male or female, but he or she flies in low, and when they come out, they use the trellis above the fishpond to take a peek at what’s going on before they fly off. Then we spotted a female greenfinch, who Other Half didn’t recognise and called me to indentify. She took up residence on the next floor up to the robin.

And that’s when I began to wonder about our old friends the collared doves. We’ve had collared doves nesting in the top of that tree pretty much every year, but we didn’t see them last year and we were wondering if they’d moved, or if something had happened to them. We did have a greyhound once who was a fearsome hunter and caught three of them over the years. They’re not very clever birds, I’m afraid. The first one I saw him catch was just sitting on the lawn - I noticed him as I let Jim out. Then there was Jim tearing up the garden after him and the stupid bird was just sitting there watching this white blur coming at him with it’s head bobbing up and down curiously. At the last minute it seemed to decide that ‘Um .. perhaps this animal’s intentions are not entirely honourable … ?’ and took off, but too late. Jim snatched him out of the air. RIP, little bird. The other two, amazingly, were just standing on the pavement outside our house and I was walking Jim on the lead. They still didn’t have the sense to bugger off, even though there was not only a 100% alert large dog scrambling to get to them but a large human yelling at them to ‘Fly off, you stupid bird!’ - I saved the third. Dazed and offended, it lived in a cardboard box overnight, and was released the next day.

So, it wouldn’t have surprised me in the least if the pair that used to nest in the conifer had met with an untimely end, but just yesterday, I saw them. They’d merely moved around to the other side and had taken up residence, right at the top as usual, but now use an entrance facing away from the house.

Sitting here writing this at 8.30am, I’ve seen a greenfinch, a blackbird, and a dove. I hope the robin hasn’t been scared off. I found one of the pair in the conservatory yesterday, trapped by his own bewilderment at the concept of glass - the door was open, but he couldn’t find it. I shut the door into the house, and cornered him behind the geraniums. He was surprisingly un-panicky and let me pick him up - I didn’t even need to close my hand around him, he just sat on my palm as I conveyed him to the door.

Sorry I don’t have pictures of that - I was kinda busy at the time - but here’s one of dove-killer Jim. You can see the base of the rocket-shaped conifer at the top left.

Oh, and I should add that this dog, although a hunter of rabbits, mice, and even on occasion birds, was 100% safe with small dogs, and actually afraid of cats.