EVERY April, I take my garden bird feeders down because by that time, there should be plenty of natural food available and also there is a risk that by feeding fledglings large pieces of nut they may choke.

Then in September I reinstate the feeders. In former years, birds found the feeders after an hour or so but this autumn it took three days for the resident robin to locate them and another three days for blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits plus a pair of nuthatches, to find or remember them from last winter. However, there are certainly fewer birds around this year.

Nature Notes: Listen out for foreign skylarks!

There is a definite pecking order among the species and the nuthatches only have to point their dagger-like beaks in the other birds' direction to scare them off.

Feral pigeons have learned to fly at the feeders to spill nuts onto the ground to feed but fortunately, parakeets find the squirrel-proof feeders difficult to access and sit on top looking rather cross because they can't reach through the metal bars.

Nature Notes: Familiar plant is not a native

Over the past several years, large flocks of goldfinches have been ever present in my garden and locally but this summer they have almost totally vanished apart from two pairs.

I enjoy watching the antics of these rather exotic colourful birds with their canary-like twittering (pictured) so hopefully as the weather turns colder they will return to their former numbers.