The last day of October. Birds are diligently and somewhat urgently gathering food for their young, whose plaintive cries can clearly be heard from the stand of trees at the end of garden. Like human parents, the birds respond instinctively to the sound of their hungry offspring.

Now and then I put some food scraps in the garden, especially when we have had little rain and our avian friends are scratching for a meal. Usually they will take whatever is offered, but lately have been getting very choosy. I expect they know what is best for the nestling diet. But today a satin bower bird swooped on a half a slice of toast, skilfully taking it out of reach of some adult magpies.

You can spend a lot of time gazing into the garden at this time of year and its never gets boring.