Now that we are back on the journey to longer days, if you get out into the garden or park before the sun comes up, you may well hear wonderful bird song – it’s enough to put a spring in your step. The robins are now joined by song thrushes and blackbirds. The former puts out phrases which it repeats each time, and the later sounds like an old man tootling around in his shed without any particular aim in mind. Both songs are fluent and clear but for me the blackbirds tones are the best and most uplifting.

For the robins, unusually for any bird, both the male and the female sing to protect their winter feeding territory. During winter the blackbirds and robins that have bred in the UK are joined by their continental cousins from Scandinavia, who seek out worms in our unfrozen ground and berries in the hedgerows. Unfortunately this year the berries are rather few and far apart. One saviour will be the ivy which never seems to have an off year.