Sacha wrote:
We have a very active rookery at the end of our garden and the garden and
nursery are alive with songbirds. Customers comment frequently on how tame
they are and how unafraid of the many dozens of people milling around here at
times.

Indeed. When I was over on Saturday, the most noticeable sound was the
sheer volume of bird song - especially in the garden. It was marvelous
to hear them in such fine voice. There was a blackbird scrabbling
around under the herbaceous benches behind the poly-tunnel and he
hardly bothered to look as I walked within 5 feet. Bird song has
gradually disappeared from everyday life over the past decades and
relatively few people realise it is missing. Even I had almost
forgotten what it was like to hear blackbirds, thrushes, dunnocks,
robins, warblers and the like in full voice. I've only just realised
that I've not even heard the chatter of blue tits in the garden for
years and they were my best ally in the war against greenfly and
caterpillars.

Back home, all I hear now is the calls of gulls, crows and woodpigeons
plus the occasional screech of peregrines as they try to catch the
pigeons. Out of 12 households along the drive here, there are 8
resident cats that are visited or fought by numerous visiting cats.
Those damn yankee squirrels are everywhere and there's not a blackbird
to be seen. If I put food out, the squirrels come down from the trees
in droves and then show their gratitude by chewing the bark off a
standard Abutilon before snipping emerging fronds from a tree fern.