Catching up on my birdwatching homework

ging on to the system remotely and my new work station is the dining room table, overlooking my garden and beyond.

As such I am afforded a perfect view down the lawn to my vegetable beds and wildflower areas at the far end, sheltered by Devon hedges on all sides and punctuated by the odd small tree.

I have a wooden bird table onto which I scatter a seed mix, and also a peanut hanger in an apple tree. Modest sources of food, but an assortment of birds take it in turns to conservation concern.

There are house sparrows, another declining species, and chaffinches, along with blackbirds, dunnocks and a collared dove or two.

But it is the larger birds that have taken me by surprise, especially visiting members of the crow family – corvids aplenty during this Covid-19 outbreak.

They include a group of five crows (one with white feathering in its wings), four jackdaws, several magpies and, best of all, three jays. I seldom get jays in my garden – or so I thought until working from home enabled me to engage in a little daytime back window birdwatching.

Jays are fabulous looking birds, with a sharp, visible flash of blue in the wing, as if they have just plucked a few feathers from a passing kingfisher with which to adorn themselves.

Topping it all, I was pleased to see a great spotted woodpecker hammering away at the peanut hanger yesterday.

I haven’t seen one in the garden for ages.

It’s amazing what a little selfimposed home isolation can do for one’s backyard bird list.