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Male starling

A lone lesser black-back on the school playing field this morning. And thirty-two woodpigeons combing the grass clippings for oddments.

I had thought a pair of woodpigeons had been nest-building in the conifer at the end of the garden but this weekend's atrocious winds don't seem to have dislodged anything so either I was mistaken or I've sorely underestimated the quality of nest building of your average woodpigeon.

Blackcap, song thrush, wren and blackbird are still singing lustily. The robin's cut his singing down to dawn, dusk and mid afternoon, which suggests he's busy. As are the sparrows: they're spending most of the day frantically scouring the sycamore buds for aphids. One of the coal tits comes into the garden regularly between quarter-past and half-past three every afternoon.

A common blue in April seems a bit early but given the mildness of the Winter it's not altogether surprising.