Is it safe to venture out? Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

They're back already this year - we've got masses here in West London now, they arrived about 2 weeks back, slightly earlier than usual. A bit worrying, it might mean they know a hard winter is coming...

I have noticed too a sharp decline (thank goodness) in their population where I live in the mid Atlantic east of the USA. They were first introduced into New York’s Central Park in the early 1900’s by a nut who decided to populate the park with every bird mentioned in the works of Shakespeare.

We used to have one of the biggest roosts in the country a couple of miles away until a few years ago. Now we never see even one.

We used to have a tree which was a staging post for them before they flew off to nest on the Runcorn Widnes bridge. When they made the bridge bird proof they all disappeared.

They are suffering globally and I remember 100's over the back of our family home when i was a child. Brother says they have 10 in the area this year for the first time in ages.

We have had 8 fledge, numbers down on last year. They are such pretty birds with their jewelled feathers.

We have only a handful round here and I have seen only a couple of young ones on the bird table this summer. They have suffered loss of nesting sites and loss of green lawns to dig about for leatherjackets etc. Apparently they are good friends of the farmer, dealing with various insect pests and I personally miss their squawking and antics on the birdtable and hanging feeders.