This is the view from my window today. It really is quite beautiful, but has put something of a damper on my thoughts of spring. The birds have been keeping at it however, and it seems that every day I hear more songs from the males. Today a male great tit was singing quite loudly while his comrades were finishing off the peanuts on my window box. He only has two notes, but he makes good use of them. The great tits, or Kohlmeise (which I’m calling them from now on, thanks to the tit problem), are very similar to the blue tits, or Blaumeise, except that they are larger and have black caps. They are very frequent visitors to our fat balls.

The loudest birds here, at all times, are the hooded crows. They dominate the entire scene: the rooftop, the trees and the ground. They strut around like lords surveying their land, cawing. Today the yard was covered with records of their activity. They are by far the largest birds that regularly visit our yard; I have more than once mistaken a large crow sitting still on a distant branch as some bird of prey. Only once have I seen a crow scared by another bird, and that was by a pair of mallards that suddenly landed in our yard a few summers ago when an old lady was throwing peanuts on the grass. The crows had been pushing everyone else out of the way, picking on the sparrows and magpies, and generally keeping all the peanuts for themselves. But when the ducks landed and started in on the peanuts, the crows kept away, hopping backwards at even the slightest sign of anger from the ducks. If I had to guess who would win the battle of duck vs. crow I would definitely pick crow. But maybe the crow knows something I don’t.