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Message: <blockquote data-quote="halftwo" data-source="post: 1733672" data-attributes="member: 45720">Garden DominationIt's a battlefield out there. This morning (hail overnight, 1c) there was a Wood pigeon shooing off a Stock dove, a Carion crow seeing off a Jackdaw, Blackbirds squabbling as usual; but the battle for nest space went on and on.As the Magpie continues her marathon nest-building session, the House sparrows and Tree sparrows took up strategic positions around the two nestboxes in the oak tree.First a Tree sparrow would perch close by one, his mate nearby - quickly followed by one, then two, then three House sparrows moving closer to the box. The Tree sparrow then goes to the top of the box, so does one of the House sparrows.The Tree sparrow enters the hole and sits half-in, half-out, singing away, which clearly wound up the House sparrows. A fight ensues and the dominant House sparrows make the Trees clear off. But not for long - soon the strategy begins again.I hope that the newer box's hole might be too small for the House sparrows - but I'm yet to find out if it's not too small for the Trees. Adjustment might have to made.In the meantime a Skylark flew over, calling, making the garden year total 47.</blockquote>