Report from the den: birds - their brains, songs and barbaric nature

The writing den is also doubling as a rather good hide from the birds. Quite often I hear a couple of heavy-footed pigeons walking around on my roof and just now I heard a curious little tapping just in front of my window. It turned out to be an (evil) thrush with a snail on the patio. I witnessed the last few assaults on the shell, and then, since it was too late to intervene, the delicate pecking out of the slimy morsel. I'd never seen a thrush doing that so close before. It was somehow mesmerising.

In other news, I am happy to report that Mario the blackbird has now found a friend to sunbathe alongside him, and for several minutes the two of them lay prone on a sunny patch of grass, beaks open, wings and tails outspread. Mario, I have decided, is the bird brain of birdbrains. I doubt he will survive until Autumn.

I have also noticed that the birds seem to be imitating electronic gadgets in their songs. One sounds exactly like a mobile phone ringing at the start of his little repertoire, and another has the startling stridency of a car alarm. I am sure I have never heard bird song like this before, and feel certain that whatever bird is doing the singing, like parrots, can imitate what they hear.