a wing and a prayer

There's a nest box a few feet above Buddha.  It's home to a family of Great Tits - we hear them cheeping and see mum and dad fly in with grub. 

One stuck its head out just to take a look at this big wide world and almost immediately a Magpie flew down and went for it.  It then sat on the nest box, furiously sticking its big beak inside.  

Anniemay threw down her lunch and dashed out into the garden.  The Magpie flew off and all is now quiet again.  For now.  We're away all next week and so we're hoping (i) the Magpie finds somewhere else to snack and (ii) Buddha offers some sort of protection. 

Update 15.30pm

Beaky (for this is what we have named our nosy chick) has left the nest.  He flops down onto the shubs below the nest box while he works out what to do next.  Not long afterwards another one leaves the nest.  They make tentative forays around the garden and then Beaky takes off and disappears over our heads into next door’s garden.

Anniemay’s getting quite whistful about all this; “that’s what they do - they grow up so quickly and leave ….”  And then she thinks of Dan hanging around the kitchen; “and then they come home again when the’re hungry.”


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