Tits aplenty to be seen in my garden

Damien Enright marvels at this year’s fledglings.

HOW many birds nested on our patch? What has our overgrown wilderness contributed to the commonwealth of birds, this spring and summer of 2006? How many young did the winter residents, their diet supplemented with crumbs, spaghetti, basmati rice, peanuts and plum pudding laced with brandy, produce?

How can we know? My days of scrambling through briar patches and scaling trees and ivied walls in search of nests are over. But I can make a rough estimate by counting the yellow-gaped young being fed by their parents on the lawn.