We've got babies!

Yesterday evening I went out into the kitchen and thought I could hear fledgling sparrows chirping to be fed and I was right. There they were on the bird table, two of them with their dad and he was busily feeding each one in turn. These are the first ones I have had in the garden this year so hopefully there will be more soon.
The magpie brought his youngster down a few weeks ago and it now comes down on it's own but the sparrows headed for the hills in December when the landlady had the side garden destroyed. Gradually over the last couple of months they have been coming back into the garden and the numbers now are back up to normal. I always feel honoured when they bring their young into the garden to feed and sometimes they tend to leave them there hiding under the plants while the parents are off doing their own thing for a while. In fact, I am an unpaid baby bird sitter!
For the last few years in the summer especially, I have also had a sparrow hawk from time to time. The sparrow hawk knows where the sparrows come to feed and sometimes would sit on the fence (once it even sat on the roof of the bird table) but although I love to see all birds and it is the law of nature, I just didn't want him to eat the little birds that I had just fed. So I would open the door so that the sparrow hawk would fly off. Then I would walk up the garden and all the sparrows would be hiding very quietly in the honeysuckle looking at me and the babies would be hiding under the plants on the ground. Once they knew it was safe because I had been out, they would return to what they had been doing.
It is always easy to tell when there is a hawk around because all the birds stop chirping and you can't see one anywhere. What is even more incredible is that sparrow hawks don't make a sound when they fly so the sparrows must have amazing eyesight to be able to spot them and go into hiding.