June 2012 - Red Damselfly & Blackbird fledglings in the garden.

Saturday 30th: A lovely warm day. This is the first of the summers' Damsel\Dragonflies that we have seen in the garden this year.

The Blackbird pair have successfully fledged a couple of young, their 3rd brood of the year.

The female now comes into the kitchen with the male and she will perch on the chair while he has first dibs at the bowl of mealworms.

May 2012 - Lakeside & other Birds

Tuesday 29th: After finishing at work, a short drive down the road to Lakeside to put my camera through some more tests. Yes, another lovely warm evening. People around, enjoying the late afternoon sun.

This is a photo of contemplation. The Sikh is sat on the pebble beach communing with nature.

A Coot on her nest, resting in the warm sunshine.

A Black-headed Gull, unusually resting and quiet!

Great-crested Grebes often take to Donny Lakeside.

Suspect that this is a Lesser Black-backed Gull.

We get our far share of Herring Gulls too.

Close by, a clutch of Mallard duckings explored a sheltered cove under the watchful eyes of the parent Mallards.

Getting home I took advantage of the sunny and warm evening by sitting in the garden. In the conifers a few feet away was perched one of the Blackbird fledglings that had hatched a couple of weeks earlier. It was waiting to be fed by the male and in between feeds would close its eyes for a moments rest.

Sunday 27th: An early morning midday to Hatfield Moor (North) to test my new camera. Warm day with clear blue sky - great to be out in the countryside! While driving down the narrow country lane, between farms, several Turkeys jumped out in front of the car forcing me to slam on the anchors! Curious, a couple wandered straight towards the car, peering at me all the while! Then joined by others, they wandered into the adjacent ploughed field. This is the first encounter with wild Turkeys that I have experienced. Usually they are on my plate!

Friday 25th: The female Blackbird is not at all worried by the presence of us in the kitchen - she is too trusting! Both Mel and I can get to almost touching distance of her! In fact she tends to stand around if the bowl is empty and flick her wings in order to get our attention.

There's all sorts of wildlife in the garden. This green Weevil with orange legs provided a test of close (macro) photography by Mel.

Wednesday 23rd: Occasionally, a passing Greenfinch will stop off in our garden - probably on it's way to Sandra's!!

Tuesday 22nd: The Blackbirds and House Sparrows are regularly coming into the kitchen for live mealworms throughout the day. The male Blackbird predominately collects a beak full and feeds the fledling Blackbirds,while the female mainly feeds herself! The birds have young to feed and are not at all shy about dashing in to get a beak full of mealworms.

 

 There are still plenty of Frogs in the garden. Most are in and around the pond as is the one below.

Saturday 12th: Mel and I went over to Elizabeth's house to do some gardening and all the time in the front, this cheeky Robin would nip in between Mel and her trowel to grab a tasty morsel. A very confident Robin, it wasn't put off by the constant movement of us and noise!

 

June 2011 - Blackbird has brood 3 and 4!

From our observations of this pair of Blackbirds, we beleive that the fledging of the chicks has been much too early for broods 3 and 4. In fact, comparing these with last years' broods by a more seasoned pair of adults and the first brood this year by this young pair, of two, the fledglings should be almost twice the size before they leave the nest. But against the odds, by 30th June, two of the fledlings had reached the appropiate size and stayed in the garden for a few weeks, being constantly fed by the adult male Blackbird.

Friday 17th: The female Blackbird that has been nesting by the back door is on her fourth nest...that we know of! She is currently on 3 eggs and looking very ragged! She has laid a total to date of seven eggs, of which she has had 6 successful hatching's and 6 successful fledglings. The first in mid-March was a nest of 3 eggs but only two hatched with the two chicks fledgling and after a couple of days we lost sight of them. Now a Sparrowhawk had been in the area on a regular basis and they may have succumbed to the raptor. Her second nest was up in the conifers where we couldn't see the eggs but we believe that it was raided by either a Squirrel, Magpie or Jackdaw. In late April, she returned to the nest by the back door and laid four eggs, all of which hatched on the 3rd of May and the four chicks fledged to a big size. At least two are still about and are fed by the male Blackbird. He even feeds them by the back door!

Last Tuesday, the female started laying eggs in the nest again and by today there are three in the nest. Where does she get all the energy from? Well it's quite obvious that access to live mealworms has supplied her with plenty of protein to produce these eggs. She is a young blackbird (two years) and is partnered with a very healthy and fit and strong male. The pair have had to repel invaders in the form of other Blackbirds and the female did have a near-death fight with another female Blackbird for feeding rights, but her facial scars have healed well. Below, you can see the massive lump above her left eye that was the result of this fight. The only other competitors that will not disappear are the House Sparrows! They continually harass her for mealworms and on occasion will try and rob both her and the male of mealworms. The Sparrows, of which there are approximately a regular 30 or so out of a garden population of 80ish will also fly into the kitchen to grab mealworms and there has been a few House Sparrow chicks in the garden too. Regular visitors too are the Jackdaws who are particularly partial to monkey-nuts and the Blackbirds do not take kindly to their visits, especially when there are Blackbird chicks about....of which there has been plenty this season.

NEWS FLASH!

By late afternoon of Thursday 30th June, all 4 eggs hatched and 4 Blackbird chicks are alive and kicking! This brings the total for this year (that we know), to 10 that the female with the nest by the back door has produced. Two, that fledged the nest on May 25th are still fit and healthy. The adult male is still feeding them though they do feed themselves and have developed in size greatly. Indeed, one of the fledglings has even taken to coming into the kitchen for live mealworms, having watched the adult male and female, though it still has to compete with the House Sparrows!

UPDATE 11th July:

Though all 4 Blackbird eggs hatched and for a few days, all 4 were being fed, only two are alive. In fact, sometime in the past week, either the male or the female Blackbird must've removed two of the chicks for some reason: more than likely they died. It is not unusual for the dead chicks to be removed as decaying matter would spread disease to the others and even attract predators. Now the nest is empty! Both remaining chicks seem to have fledged...rather too early as they are both underdeveloped. We wouldn't be surprised if both were either predated or died of cold in the night.

UPDATE 14th JULY:

The fledgling chick that was very under developed has died. This now leaves one. We haven't seen this fledgling but we have seen a fledgling that looks as though it has been out of the nest for a few weeks.

Below are a couple of photos that Mel grabbed of the male Blackbird and female House Sparrow, hiding in the house from the Sparrowhawk that was outside in the garden. The Blackbird has flown out of the kitchen where it was eating mealworms...and into the Utility room when the lawn mower is kept. Here you can see it hiding in the grass box!

Meanwhile... the House Sparrow that was also eating mealworms, flew into the living room and onto the sound-system speaker. After a while it relaxed and sat on the canary's perch. Later, both birds made their way out and back into the garden.

May 2011 - 25th: Brood 3,  Blackbird chicks.

Below is a series of photos that Melanie took during the third brood that the Blackbirds hatched in the nest by the back door.

First chick hatched on 25th May.

By 28th, all four had hatched.

Close-up.

Always hungry - the adult Blackbirds were constantly visiting the kitchen for live mealworms.

The rival female - the nest is to the left just out of shot. The female is on the nest giving the rival the "evil eye". These two birds have had some ferocious fights these past weeks!

The female visits the kitchen for mealworms and catches the afternoon Sun.

4th June, getting ready to fledge.

8th June, the chicks have fledged the nest and are easy targets for predators.

8th June, the female gathering yet more mealworms from the kitchen.