The alarm call of a blackbird makes me look up in time to see a magpie hurtle into the branches of the apple tree in our garden, hotly pursued by two adult blackbirds in no mood to compromise. They shriek and display their displeasure until, after a minute or so, it gives up and flaps away over the hedge towards the fields. The blackbirds have many scores to settle with the much larger predator, most recently the attack on their nest where a magpie made off with at least one egg – which I found empty shortly afterwards on the path, eaten rather than hatched.
In the collision with the tree, the magpie causes a flurry of falling blossom, a pale starburst of petals against the darker foliage, but most of the recently emerged flowers are still firmly rooted to the boughs. It is a good year for blossom – very welcome after last spring when Storm Kathleen ripped the flowers away before pollination had taken place, leaving us with our poorest apple crop for many years.
