Nic, you’re right, Nagini was Lord Voldemorte’s snake. Poor thing, I know that they’ve been extremely busy lately, perhaps there were very few names left to choose from.
Back to the subject of birds, we also had Mistle thrushes living in the garden for many years, until one spring I found the headless body of an adult on the lawn, just below its nest of chicks. The chicks must have also perished, because we have rarely seen one since. Because they spend so much of their time on the ground listening for worms, I suppose it makes them very vulnerable to cats- there I go again!
On a brighter note, this has been a bumper year for baby birds in the garden; we even have a green woodpecker and its chicks around at the moment. They are very shy, so I have only caught a fleeting glimpse now and again, but you can hear the parents calling to the chicks.
Sven has been incredibly busy raising his young and I am pretty sure that he is on his third brood! There was no sign of his mrs feeding the last lot, and then out of the blue arrived another batch of youngsters. She must have been busy incubating another clutch of eggs whilst poor Sven was run off his feet. I know that you worry about hedgehogs becoming reliant on us feeding them, but I am more worried about the blackbirds eating the cat biscuits! Having said that, Sven and the rest of his offspring look incredibly healthy, with barely a grey feather to speak of.
With no clips of any hoglets yet, I thought I would post this of the man himself stealing the hedgehog food and a young squirrel chasing off a wood pigeon…can’t blame it for that!
