My morning

Similar story here.
Previous years we haven't actually had a nest in our garden but blackbird parents have brought fledglings to us because of the ready top-up food supply, including currants. This year we have a nest.
Whilst ironing this a.m. have watched the pair working on what may be their third attempt at producing a family; I have seen magpies & crows at the nest site over the last 4 to 6 weeks, which may not be well-enough camouflaged from above.
I do hope their enthusiasm is rewarded!

A couple of years ago I saw a sparrowhawk take a great spotted woodpecker from my garden. We then heard what must have been its orphaned baby calling loudly, its head poking out of the hole, gradually getting weaker, for several days. It was heartbreaking! The nest was very high in a tree on the farmland at the end of my garden.
One year I heard magpies making a terrible racket, only to see my cat sitting in their nest. I called her down and hope she had done no harm.

I would hate to have seen that.
We know it's natural but we don't want to see it, especially "our" chicks
I discovered yesterday that one of our nest boxes is occupied by a brood of sparrows. The first we've had in the 8-9 yrs the boxes have been up. Keep away magpies !

(Having said that I do hate seeing cats killing birds as they kill for fun.)

It is horribly hard, but otherwise we'd either be overrun by tiny birds or a lot would die of starvation the way so many released pheasants do.

It's heartbreaking isn't it? We had blackbirds nesting in our garden a couple of years ago and magpies took the eggs. Last year, they reared a brood and we were delighted. Then we saw them leave the nest and come down into the garden and were very concerned at how vulnerable they had then become. We came down one morning to find bits of fledgeling blackbirds all over the place. A cat had had them. I have seen magpies take unfledged pigeon chicks out of a nest.

ooo how sad. I remember seeing something similar on the golf course and felt quite sick.