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I have a new hobby – bird watching. From my front window, I get a bird’s eye view of sparrows enjoying my feeder. It’s a fairly busy road with not much vegetation, so only the most social birds venture into this domain of city life – the odd robin and blackbird, but mainly the sparrows.

I think we subconsciously look down on the common sparrow – they are not the most beautiful bird in God’s Creation – a rather common brown plumage and their sheer ubiquity can make us a bit dismissive of their real charm.

But, from my front window, I have grown to enjoy their song and friendliness – Don’t judge a bird by its looks.

I enjoy watching sparrows in the front garden, so I got another feeder for the back garden. Surrounded by trees and garden, there is a greater variety of birds that fly through here.

Again I’m indebted to my old enemy the Hazel – a good vantage point for birds flying through.

I’ve seen more birds in the back garden, but not particularly on the feeder. I was rather suspicious of the speed with which nuts and seeds were disappearing until I spied a squirrel red-handed – stuffing his gulls for his larder. I feel I should be equally charitable to all wildlife, but there was a part of me that felt the squirrels were taking the micky – if not daylight robbery – it wasn’t what I intended. I moved the feeder further from the fence to make it more difficult for the squirrels.

It’s not quite ‘Rear Window’ a la Hitchcock, but it is interesting to see which wildlife comes along.

I used to do intense cycle training but now I often just amble around Oxford on the bike. Even in the hustle of the city, I’ve noticed how beautiful it is to hear the birdsong all around the city, you may not see the birds, but you can definitely hear them. I don’t know why I’ve not noticed so much before. Sometimes the beauty and wonder of life is hidden in plain sight.