29th April - the male gets all protective

A fourth egg was laid today

The female was on the nest by 10.30 today - she has a proper routine it appears! She spent a lot of time on the nest, although still not as much as she did once her clutch of eggs was completed last time, so we'll see if she has any surprises for us tomorrow. She was served lunch again by the male - this time a beak full of worms, and this time he seems to have got the hang of things. There was a fair bit of drama today, and I got to see how the pair interact when danger is near. Often I heared the thin "seep" call coming from the male, who was perched close by but somewhere hidden, as he warned his mate to sit tight. At least, that's what I infer from it, as whenever he made that call she would shuffle down further into the nest in an attempt to become invisible. What was he seeing? I would go out into the garden to try and see the potential threat, but usually with the "seep" call, I could not. Mid afternoon there was a commotion of a different magnitude when a magpie attempted to raid a neighbouring blackbird nest in a tree three gardens down from ours. All the blackbirds of the neighbourhood had come out in support of their neighbour and were frantically mobbing the magpie, screeching, pecking and giving the familiar rattling, cackling alarm call that sounds to me as if they are shreiking "OMG OMG OMFG!!!!!!" Our male was presumably taking part, and the female was going through agonies of curiosity. Every so often she would creep very slightly forward in the nest in an attempt to see what was going on, but the screeches of her mate would see her sliding back into the nest and hiding in it as far down as she could go. Obviously he couldn't come to her in case he led the magpie to the nest, but once the danger had passed and the magpie was driven away he took up his position in the dead ash tree and began his territorial song. As soon as he did this, the female relaxed visibly, fluffed herself out and began fidgeting contentedly. It's fascinating to see how much the male can communicate to her.