Throughout the day the sounds of spring accompany our work, inside and out. The bird breeding season has progressed with young birds out and about, accompanied by their instructive parents.

Young magpies fool about figuring out what’s food, where to find it, and how to get at it. It seems that keeping at your parent is always a good bet!

A pair of scrub wrens have made a nest amongst our stored container of rubbish collection bags, successfully raising two chicks. Here they are on their first outing.

Outside the office, the Grey Shrike-thrushes have also hatched two babies, and having fed them copious quantities of food in the nest for a week, the babies have jumped down to be fed in the shrubs. They keep up a constant metred ‘peep’ when they are hungry so that their parents can find them to supply food. Listen here to the sound of parent and chicks calling.

These birds are a great example of babies not needing our help – even though we might definitely get that impression, as they can hardly fly at all when they leave the nest. Rather than disturb their routine, we need to make sure our cats and dogs can’t get at them, and then just leave them alone. They will stay more or less at ground level, moving regularly. Their parents will continue to feed them until they are competent to look after themselves.