Down came a blackbird her nest to compose | Country diary

Sandy, Bedfordshire A beak full of moss showed the female bird was at the soft furnishing stage of nesting

All through this spring I have stood at the kitchen sink, waited for the kettle to boil, and looked idly out of the window at fragments of a life. She was there again early in the evening. Perched on a post, this blackbird was evidently nervous, flicking her wings as if she was trying to row through sand, lifting her tail to say go, dropping it to say no, not yet.

Related: Cats killing huge numbers of British birds, Sir David Attenborough warns