The nest is in the bottom centre of this picture, at the far left of the box |
"And then there were four!" |
"They are just like Cadbury's Mini Eggs!" |
"Keeping a beady eye on me" |
Making friends
It is now two weeks since I began sharing my
balcony with a blackbird family. Mrs Blackbird, while sitting on her four
beautiful eggs or perching on the side of the window-box having a stretch, has
become quite used to me popping out now and then to check on the weather or to
water the plants, and also to keep a check on how she is.
Last Sunday she even let me sit in my chair
beside her and read the newspaper.
Today I could get really close again to take
a new photograph of her on the nest. I had actually rushed in to get the camera
when I discovered that she had left the nest for her early morning stretch but
by the time I got back the nest was filled with her fluffed up body again.
Is Dad standing by?
I have not seen the black Mr Blackbird since
before my trip to England. It was the male bird that I had spotted making a
mess of my plant pots when gathering mud for the nest. I hope that he is still
around and will reappear to help out with the feeding frenzy that will soon
begin.
If Dad has come to an unfortunate end then I
will have to give a helping hand by purchasing Mrs Blackbird some maggots from
the fishing-tackle shop and leaving them on the balcony for her.
That is something else
that I learnt from my Mum!
With a family of keen fisherman there was
often a can of maggots in the fridge. My
Mum, with Dad’s full approval, often raided this tin, placing some of the
contents on a tray in the middle of the lawn. She did this particularly to help
out her robin friends, who fed from her hand, when there was a huge family of
baby-birds to feed. She also fed the robins grubs that she found while raking
the moss from the lawn to use to line her hanging flower-baskets. These grubs
were specialities that the robins always took fresh from her fingers!
Dad has the photographs, I will ask him for
them when I next see him!
Norwich peregrines
The
young birds fledged two weeks ago but still the Hawk and Owl Trust Forum is
inaction. There are some wonderful photographs to be found there by the
contributors on the forum, one such set can be found here—
You can
find others by scrolling though the Forum topic-list –
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