i took this...

...at 7:30 am this morning.

Set up the swing with my paperwork to do and my binoculars to watch the birds and magpie.

Sat on the swing as the sun rose higher and reached me...the first rays of the sun are healing and magical.

Last night when the magpie raided the hedge sparrows nest I wasn’t happy. I am not sure what remains of eggs or fledglings. Possibly nothing because Mr Magpie made a few visits.

He was the largest and longest magpie I have ever seen. His tail was longer than his head and body...possibly one and a half times longer. He was definitely longer than 2 12inch rulers. I was literally inches or a foot away from him, my face was, when I went into the thicket of bushes/trees to find out why the hedge sparrows were so upset last night. I hadn’t seen him fly in.

A bit later on last night he was mithering some collared doves, and attacked one of them on the cherry tree. The dove managed to fly away, but the magpie followed it, attacking it with its beak. The dove got away.

Then I heard a sharp noise and I am thinking ‘airgun’? But there were more sharp cracking noises, and I realised it was possibly a Chinese firecracker. It was like the air was filled with the sound of Chinese firecrackers.

The magpie flew away.

The magpies don’t sleep or nest in the cherry trees. They come from the woods about a few hundred yards away, from the South-East.

The first magpie arrived in the cherry trees at 8:29 this morning. But it wasnt the large one from yesterday. This one was smaller, with a shorter tail.

Right...I am going to make another cuppa and get on with my paperwork...