Yesterday whilst being a paragon of domesticity over the noise of the washing machine I heard a tremendous commotion coming from the garden. The birds had worked themselves up into a right royal frenzy. None more so than the White-browed Babblers. At the best of times they sound like a very grumpy squeaky toy but yesterday they had taken this to new levels.

I thought it was the neighbours cat had probably taken a short cut through our garden on its way home, so when I went to hang out the washing I saw the true cause of the commotion. Our resident Nankeen Kestrel was sat in a tree at the bottom of the garden. Normally it uses our TV aerial as an observation post, but its new spot meant that it was looking down on the Babbler’s nursery. Over the last few weeks a group of them had been building a large breeding nest in the bougainvillea at the bottom of the garden. Its position meant it could not be seen from the front of the garden and in particular from the TV aerial. Now that has all changed and the nankeen kestrel spent most of yesterday sat in its new position looking straight down at the nest below. It is a very real threat. Last spring Zebra Finches had built a nest in our chimney and hatched out a clutch of eggs. Over a period of a couple of months the kestrel ate all the chicks and both parents. Nature can be very cruel. A lot of the small garden birds such as the Willie Wagtail and the honeyeaters will drive off birds of prey. It can be quite comical watching the tiny birds fly around the heads of gators harassing them until they just fly off to look for something easier. The White-browed Babblers don’t do that and I’m wondering whether they will abandon their new nest and return to their previous one in the much larger and more densely leaved peppercorn tree or move on to another garden altogether.