Thieving magpies!

The magpies have cottoned on to the fact that we feed Charlie, the ginger cat, outside and are now helping themselves to any leftovers in his bowl. They sit on the privet hedge and survey the area to make sure the cats and fox aren't around, then swoop down and pick up what they can. They love cat biscuits, which they fly to the birds' water dish with, then dunk them to soften them. They're pretty bright, those magpies, and beautiful, too, with that glorious kingfisher blue on their wings. A couple of days ago, the parent birds took their youngster to the water dish and were teaching him how to drink. I expect he or she will be joining them soon on their cat food raids.

The vixen is weaning the cubs now. She eats a little food herself, then stuffs her mouth with as much as she can carry and scoots through the hedge with it. I dread the day the house next door sells. It needs renovating, so will probably go to a developer who will fill the garden with building gear. I hope she has a safe place to remove her family to. The fox path that she has worn in the grass goes down and across our garden, through the hedge, across next door's lawn and down to the bottom, but whatever happens next door, she will still be able to access our garden from the field at the bottom. Let's hope that never gets built on, as the local wildlife would really suffer. Hopefully, the old oak trees have preservation orders on them so any building would be beyond the tree-line. Fingers crossed...