August is a quiet month with most birds' energy being used to renew their feathers, writes Dominic Couzens, but there's some strange behaviour in the garden and a Summer glut to Watch -- and both involve ants. It's quite common in August to have whatlooks like a deserted garden, as far as birds are concerned. The feeders aren't doing much trade and the trees and bushes are strangely devoid of calls and rustling, the normal signs of bird activity. Sometimes this causes us to worry that our favouritecharacters, the missing robin and blackbird, say, have somehow succumbed to disease at the end of the breeding season or have lowered their guard enough to be picked off bythe local sparrowhawkor cat.
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