AS I am on holiday the editor has allowed me to write about birds this week!

Since childhood in the Yorkshire Dales when I learnt about garden birds and then curlews, lapwings and other waders, I have been fascinated by birds and their behaviour.

This year my wife has fed the birds in our garden in Kidderminster regularly.

We knew we had the ordinary garden varieties - blackbirds, robins, wrens, blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, starlings and the occasional song thrush.

This year we have seen many greenfinches, a return of house sparrows and during the winter up to 20 siskins.

The highlights have been goldfinches which have fledged six chicks with their beautifully patterned backs before acquiring the striking red, white and black adult heads and two pairs of bullfinches producing two drab, dusky offspring.

Although fully-grown and independent we cannot tell yet if they are going to gain the gorgeous plumage of the cock or the more restrained shades of the hen.

The cocks and hens are models of married life scarcely ever seen apart but there is no doubt which wears the trousers.

If the bird table is too crowded the hen takes the aggressive action while her mate just eats on regardless!

We have been delighted by occasional visits from nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers, two sparrowhawks and a jay.

Since repairs to our roof were carried out, we have lost our own breeding swifts but still hear their wild, aerial screams from May until early August.

At Easter we visited the Lake District where after a lovely stroll round the southern end of Haweswater we discovered the RSPB observation point for watching the only pair of golden eagles in England.

We arrived to be told no eagles had been seen but there were ring ouzels as compensation.

As we were leaving, the male eagle arrived on cue and posed in a small tree, providing splendid views through the RSPB telescopes.

Nearer to home, one of the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Reserves has been even more exciting than usual.

A pair of avocets, the symbol of the RSPB, set up home there in early spring. I observed their courtship on one visit and then they hatched four chicks, delightful fluffy balls on long legs which soon are able to wade in shallow water and try to copy their parents' feeding habits with their upturned bills.

How they cope puzzles me as their beaks do not initially have the upturn essential for the sideways sweeping movement through the water that collects their food.

The parents were assiduously protective, frightening off other waders including the diminutive little ringed plovers that surely posed no threat.

They have been very successful - three chicks are now grown-up, handsome birds flying strongly and preparing for the journey south.