We all love robins in the UK, don’t we? Some of us love them so much we have a family member named after them, don’t we (Robyn, our daughter!)?  Robins were voted our national bird in 1960 and people seem to really love having them in their gardens, even though they’re feisty and bossy little birds. They’re related to the blackbird and the nightingale too, as were classed are members of the thrush family, but now have been reclassified as members of the  Old World Flycatcher family – they usually can raise three broods of chicks a year, but some have been known to raise as many as five broods! Robins are territorial and will fight to the death, apparently, they will not enter standard nest boxes, as they like to nest in open-fronted boxes, and mealworms are their favourite food. (Available separately in our shop or on our website too)...

Those of you who feed the birds, and thankfully there are many of us, will have noticed that your feeders are being emptied more quickly and that there are more smaller birds visiting your feeders and bird tables too. This is the time of year that our garden birds have juveniles which are ready to leave the nests; they are able to fly for short distances and are shown where the best food sources are by their parents, which is usually our garden bird tables and feeders. We have noticed some small balls of fluff, identified as baby blue tits waiting patiently near the feeders and watching carefully what mum and dad are showing them. As these youngsters are easy prey until they get older and wiser, and hopefully they will live to get older there are a few ways in which we can help them without too much trouble to...