Where have all the birds gone?

When I was 12, my perfect idea of a Saturday afternoon was to sit at my window with a pair of binoculars and try to spot as many birds as I could. While I was lucky enough to live right next to common ground (it now backs onto a large dual carriageway) I still saw loads of different birds. Thrushes, tits, finches, you name it, they visited my garden and I'd eagerly jot them down in my spotter's guide.

I was hoping to invest a similar interest in nature in my 8-year-old, so I bought a bird table and a couple of feeders to try and coax some nature into our small garden. So far the results have not been good.

While we do have a young, active cat (Hugo if you'd like to know) we also have plenty of underbrush and small trees that offer plenty of cover. In short, there's no real reason why we shouldn't get visitors. Sadly, the last few weeks have been rather non-eventful, with just 2 noted arrivals to our little garden sanctuary, an extremely greedy Wood Pigeon and an overly cautious juvenile Robin. We get Goldfinches, Tits and Starlings flying across or calling from neighbouring gardens, but they never want to visit, which is a real pity.

Hopefully this will change going forward, but one thing's for sure, life in the average garden has sure changed a lot in the past 28 years. I hope this drop off in garden visitors doesn't continue.