Birds Of A Feather

Flock together, or so the rhyme goes.. Here the Parent House Sparrow is feeding the ever hungary juvenile on the fence beneath the rugby scrum above.

House Sparrows. I had read how they are scarce in parts of Britain and not far up the RSPB's list of commonest British garden birds in the big bird count. I had about fourteen of them today feeding en masse.

A mystery was how my fat balls (hidden behind a scrum of House Sparrows) went days after being put out.They used to last months. I looked out of the window away from the birds view. A whole flying troupe of House Sparrows flew down to feed together. Some sat, some flew in and knocked the others off, some watched from the safety of the clothes line or canes holding my tomato plants up.They ate most of one of the three fat balls over the course of a day.

Enter stage right. This Magpie swooped down and sent them all flying back into the safety of the tree's. He had the approach of Nosferatu with a black cloak on. His large size and bright colours scared the sparrows away.The prince of Darkness!
I had not seen Magpies in my garden at all since I moved in last November. He had been in earlier but flew out before I could work out what he was doing.
From the kitchen vantage point I waited to see why he had flown down and made the House Sparrow mob scatter...

Onto the bird table to take some nice peanuts. I would not have believed it. The Magpies normally hang out in the Privet hedge and Fir Trees, cackling and making machine gun noises.They are handsome birds, but not really garden feeders.
Maybe this one had seen the House Sparrow mob in action and thought I'll have some of that. He maybe discovered the food when I was away and the house was quiet.
A flying troup and rogue magpie today have brightened my garden.