The cheeky baby blackbird in the picture on the right has just devoured the last plum-pink gooseberry on my ‘Rokula’ standard. He was not alone. A posse of four scruffy brown babies aided by equally voracious parents saved me having to worry about picking the last of them. They swooped down and had them all in five minutes, the buffet at their end of nest party.

I seem to have kept my family of blackbirds. At the moment the coterie are performing in the whitebeam (Sorbus aria) pulling the red fruits away with almost as much gusto as the athletic squirrels who denuded the walnut tree next door last week. Both have provided an interesting distraction from writing.

Birds are so important in the garden, and I have two chaffinches to thank for eating up the gooseberry sawfly larva in June, before they got the chance to defoliate my bushes. They picked through the five standard gooseberries to great effect, before moving on to the aphids on the roses further up the garden.

Finches are generally seed eaters, as you can tell from their chunky beaks. However, when they have fledglings to feed, they have to collect small protein-rich invertebrates to feed their babies.

This is true of most species of small bird. In order to breed and raise a nestful most need small insects and grubs, not nuts and seeds. That alone is one excellent reason for not using insecticides.

I am just about to set up my bird table again because in the last few days we have had an explosion of coal tits, finches, great tits, redwings and fieldfares. These have almost certainly crossed the North Sea in the last week or so. Often their arrival heralds cold weather, so I shall also be digging out the winter coat.

Certain seed heads are always popular and Globe artichokes (Cynara cardunculus) have always attracted goldfinches in the autumn. As the asters fade they will also attract the seed eating finches. My anthills lure in the green woodpecker, although this year’s dry summer made him less of a visitor. He usually arrives after summer rain when the ground is soft.

I love the bird life in my garden and I am constantly asking gardeners not to use branded insecticides because they affect breeding birds. However, the green so-called ‘organic spray’ can do just as much damage. Mustard-based sprays, soft soap and garlic sprays may not linger in the environment as long as some manufactured pesticides do, but they harm your eco-system just as much. All three sprays are equally indiscriminate and kill pests and predators alike, upsetting the balance between the two. There is no better way to give pests the upper hand.

It’s much better to stand back and allow the birds to do the job for you. If you are over-concerned, the human race is blessed with a wonderful set of tools — fingers.

Rub away the aphids if you must.