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away, and the blackbirds and robins scurrying around below.However, birds must have a supply of water, too, so whenever I boil myself a kettle to make a cup of tea I always pop outside with the remaining boiling water to pour onto ice in the bird bath

). But I feel it's only a matter of time before they find it. The only birds visiting my garden at the moment are a blackbird, robin and several pigeons. Blackbirds and robins are ground feeders, so I leave food on the ground for them. I put it out first

, by July and August there are millions more hungry mouths to feed. For tits, finches and sparrows, garden feeding stations provide a real lifeline. And even for birds like robins, wrens, thrushes and blackbirds, availability of insects, fruits and berries

, is even more perfect than Maggie Smith), Clive Owen and David Kelly (whom older readers will remember as the one-armed Irish washer up in Robin's Nest). Based on a true story it follows a group of convicts who discover a passion for gardening

.And, as if all this was not enough, there was some fine cake (the ginger was particularly good) and I found a robin tame enough to sit still while I took his photograph.

noticed, except the butterflies, of course, and the blackbirds and the robin and the frogs.I can see the benefits of having an artificial lawn, a lawn that stays green and lush under trees and in between goal posts, that you don't have to get up to mow

and watering the birds. Recent visitors include 32 sparrows, three robins, masses of assorted tits and hordes of blackbirds, all happily feasting on the hedge in front of our house.Before light the blackbirds are feasting on the cut apples, bird seed and fat

couple of thrushes look curiously at the small gaggle of blue/ great/ long-tailed tits in the apple tree. Four wood pigeons hunch, bored, in the big sycamore tree. I think there’s even a robin perched way off in the distance. I only give it five minutes

in the base. Hang the box in 2-3m high, in a sheltered spot, ideally facing north east, east or south east.Not all birds like boxes with a hole for an entrance. Robins, wagtails and flycatchers, for example, need a box with a front panel that covers only two

windfalls are left beneath trees for blackbirds to peck at.Hedges and thick shrubs provide shelter and nesting sites - I could show you at least four sites around my garden where sparrows, blackbirds, robin and wren (I think) nested last year. Water