We have some long tailed tits nesting in a hedge in the garden. Their chicks hatched possibly a week ago and the local magpie clocked the frenzied foraging of the parents. I saw the magpie leave the hedge (via the exit used by the parents). The magpie didn’t seem successful (the hedge is a very spiky pyrocantha) and I can still hear the chicks... but the parents haven’t been in or out of the hedge since - although I did see them in a nearby tree.
I am hopeful that the parents haven’t abandoned the nest as they are in nearby trees - but if they don’t show any signs of returning, what should I do?