You may be aware by now that we had the most sweetest brush with nature recently. This is only my second experience of observing a bird lay eggs. My first experience was back in 1997 when I lived on the 5th floor of a high rise council block of flats in Bristol, UK. We had a lot of pigeons as some folk would feed the birds from their balconies which was forbidden. A pigeon made a nest in the corner of my balcony and laid eggs which quickly hatched. The chicks were so cute but soon grew and took off. This was repeated a lot, I’m not sure if it was the same bird or different ones but they kept on nesting in the corner of my balcony. I phoned the council for advice as the pigeons were making such a mess of the balcony and there was tons of bird poop so I couldn’t hang my washing out. What I wasn’t prepared for was for 2 council men to turn up and destroy the eggs whilst mummy pigeon was absent, I felt so bad. I know some people hate pigeons and call them flying rats but I thought they were quite nice. I naively thought the council men would move them, rehouse them or give me some advice. They then cleaned the balcony and put wire mesh up to prevent it happening again. So that was my first encounter with bird nature. I hated that mesh, I know it fitted it’s purpose in keeping the area clean and bird free but I felt like I was in a prison. I could no longer hang over my balcony but had to view the world through wired mesh.

If you have read my post titled ‘The secret garden’ you will know that recently I had a robin make a nest in the middle of our fig tree and she laid 5 eggs. I have been monitoring the chicks since they hatched from a distance and am sad to say that the chicks and mummy have now all flown the nest. I know this is normal and part of nature but I will miss her. She scared the hell out of me some days as she would fly off foraging for food for hours and I would check on the chicks who were left alone for long periods but apparently this is normal. I was so worried that another animal would steal the eggs or worse but it all turned out fine in the end. They have flown off into the Portuguese skies forever. I hope she returns or tells her friends that Casa Valhal was a beautiful spot to pop out some sprogs. There are 2 suitable holes in our fig tree, one at the front and one at the back of the tree. She chose the one on the front looking outwards to the hills and with the beautiful scenery. I often wonder if she chose that particular spot on purpose for the lovely views or maybe so she could keep an eye on predators which is a lot more likely and makes sense but I like to think that she chose the views that I love so much. So long my robin friend.