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.

April 2011 - Hedgehogs pre-release night!

Friday 1st: The time has come, the bad weather gone and spring is in the air. Tonight at 10:20pm, all three Hedgehogs - Grumpy, Little-Lad and Pinky - are back in the garden. Born last June, we found four baby hedgehogs in the planthouse. Probably two days old and cold to the touch. It appeared that they had either been abandoned or orphaned. We of course took them in and through Mel's perseverance, raised three to adulthood with the fourth unfortunately dying a few days after we took them into the house. They spent the late summer months and early autumn living outside in the garden. But in late November when the freezing weather and the snows came, we moved them back into the house to feed and gain the weight needed to become adults. So now the time is here and they are back in the garden. Here they will stay, probably for three or four weeks before we transfer them to another garden in the countryside where eventually they (we hope) disperse into the wild. The Blackbird nesting just outside the backdoor has today hatched two of the three eggs. Two tiny and helpless chicks are being fed by both male and female Blackbird.

MAY 2009 - Robin chicks fledge the nest!

Friday 15th, well...it's all happening today with the Robins! This morning, all 6...yes we can confirm that there are 6 Robin chicks, were still in the nest. How they could all stay in without any falling out is beyond me! The nest is quite small, too small for 6 medium chicks and wedged up against the fence, amongst the ivy. By this afternoon, Melanie had reported that they had flown the nest. Both adult Robins were on hand to oversee the event and tempted the chicks out with beaks full of live mealworms.

This evening I managed to see one of the newly fledged Robins as it sat in the conifers waiting for food. Feeding the adults, I could see that they were flying to all areas of the garden and beyond to pass on the mealworms. But best of all, during a rain-free window, the two adults were possibly inspecting another site for a nest. But the manner in which they did this was something I've never seen before. Both were hovering...yes hovering in a manner similar to Humming Birds, very rapid wing-beats and both birds side by side, inspecting the ivy against the fence together. To see two adult Robins hovering side by side, three foot from the ground and in almost perfect synchronization is truly amazing! Unfortunately I have no photos of this fascinating happening.

The Blackbirds are still resident in the garden. Family 'Set-B' (male, female and two fledglings)with their second brood. Also around is an older female fledgling from the first brood. Yesterday I did see what I think is the male from the first brood eating berries in the front garden.

House Sparrow fledglings are out and about now in the garden. Some of the adults are collecting live mealworms from us and seem to be quicker at grabbing the worms than the Robins, which get bullied out! This is a surprise to me as I had always assumed that Robins can be very aggressive.

Another bird that is a very regular visitor to the garden are Jackdaws. There seems to be a group of 4 adults that attend the bird table where there is always a selection of dry food...weather permitting! An intelligent bird, sleek and very tidy-looking and can be skittish, though immune to the dive-bombing of the male Blackbird! Like other Corvids, Jackdaws mate for life and both adults take great care in rearing their offspring. Last year during late May and June/July, we had a couple of Jackdaw fledglings accompanying the adults to the bird table.

May 2009 - Robin feeding chicks!

Sunday 10th, the Robin was out and about in the garden today gathering food for the chicks that hatched earlier in the week. Robin has now started visiting the kitchen again to get mealworms a these images show. Melanie has looked at the nest and there could be as many as 5 (confirmed) or maybe 6 chicks, that's one more than reported last Wednesday.



The Blackbird family 'Set-B', as we call them has finally fledged her second brood! Last night I saw one of the fledglings very well hidden in the conifers. The constant chirp-chirping was the giveaway! Both the male and female adults have been taking live mealworms to three different points in the garden. Presumably this is where the fledglings are located.

The Blackbird fledglings, now classed as immatures (we have only seen two recently and they are developing very well) from the first brood are around but not a much as had been, due to the instance of being chased off by the adults. But they will fight back if they are hungry and want mealworms. The male adult from 'Set-A' still puts in an appearance from time-to-time.

MAY 2009 - Robin hatches 4 chicks & Blackbird hatches a second Brood!

Wednesday 6th, and the Robin that we recently found nesting at the bottom of the garden, has revealed 4 chicks to us (see photo above)! At the moment the chicks are still too underdeveloped to fledge which leads us to suspect that they only hatched maybe two or three days ago. The adult Robin herself still spends a lot of her time sitting on them to keep them warm. The adult male pays regular visits to feed the female, perched on the line that is close by. I managed to get a "not very good" photo of the chicks in the nest while the female was off stretching her legs somewhere.

Talking of chicks; the Blackbird family that we call 'Set-B' has now hatched her second brood. We can hear them but as yet have not seen them. The female still comes to the back door for mealworms to feed the chicks. Today I managed to get a short video of her coming into the kitchen to help herself to a beak-full!



One of our regular Wood Pigeon visitors has started to eat from the feeders normally only suitable for smaller birds! Not content with mastering the art of balancing while eating from the lantern feeder (see earlier post from April)...he...or she...has taken to eating the crushed peanuts from the wire feeder. Not normally a problem if you are a bird small enough to hang onto the feeder while eating...but if you are a big plump bird, you have to learn the art of balance and timing to rock to and fro to get a tasty morsel!

APRIL 2009 - Blackbird & Sparrows in the House & visit to Potteric Carr

Sunday 26th, we have located the second nest of the female Blackbird from Family 'Set-B' and it is in our garden...maybe about ten inches from her first nest! Well, she's going to stay close to where the food supply is and we are it! The back door has to stay shut when not feeding the birds as we have found...to our cost that the Blackbirds (female and male) along with House Sparrows, are coming into the kitchen in search of mealworms! In one instance this afternoon at 5:45pm, the female Blackbird must have sneaked into the kitchen, found there was no mealworms available and flew upstairs where she left little packages in the study. All this while we had visitors too! Anyway Melanie managed to open the window and out she flew...sorry no pictures are available! Five minutes later, she was at the back door for feeding!

The House Sparrows are also being very bold. They have started to come into the kitchen if the door is left adjar. While at Potteric Carr this afternoon, I received a phone call and it was my wife telling me that 3 Sparrows and the Blackbird female were stood on the kitchen floor waiting to be fed.

APRIL 2009 - Blackbirds feeding new family?

Saturday 25th, well what do ya know? The Blackbird adults of Family 'Set-B'....you remember them...we had two nests of Blackbirds in the garden and we labeled them Set-A' and 'Set-B'. Well, it seems that having fledged, originally what we think we 3 chicks, they are now collecting mealworms for the new family! As it turns out, this scenario has shown us some interesting Blackbird behaviour. At the beginning of the week, the adult male had the sole task of constantly feeding the two surviving fledglings, which are now as large as he is! Any way, he started bringing them to the back door for mealworms. At first they were a bit apprehensive as you would expect. Now the number of times that they would tun up for food would be six or seven a day! By last Wednesday, the fledglings were quite at ease with the situation and would accompany their parent, who would dutifully feed them with our mealworms. They became so used to the situation that both of them started feeding themselves from the back door. Whenever the door is open they were there. If the adult female was around, she would shoo them away and grab any mealworms for what we think must be a new batch of hatched chicks. She steadfastly refused to feed the fledglings!


Now as of yesterday, the male is refusing to feed the fledglings and is collecting mealworms with which he flies off in the same direction as the female. He will even go so far as to attack the fledglings if they try to steal a mealworm or two. So is this must be indicative of Blackbird behaviour, indeed other birds may behave the same to their offspring?

APRIL 2009 - Return of Blackbird youngsters!

Having not seen the Blackbird chicks since they fledged a couple of weeks ago, it was reassuring to see three on the shed roof earlier this week. Now, as you will recall, we had two sets of Blackbird families hatched in the garden. Each nested yielded at least three chicks. We called the nest by the back door, family 'Set-A' and the nest high up in the conifers, family 'Set-B'. Well 'Set-A' hatched three of the four eggs. family 'Set-B' hatched three eggs of an unknown original quantity of eggs.

The three fledglings from family 'Set-A' soon dispersed from the garden, we believe to adjoining gardens, but the adult male Blackbird still was observed (and still is around, as he frequently has aerial fights with the male from 'Set-B') in the garden digging for worms and accepting mealworms. The adult female Blackbird has gone and has not been seen since the chicks fledged. She built a second nest in our garden but never occupied it. We can only assume that she has taken-up with another male or has perished!

Meanwhile, both the male and female adults from 'Set-B' are constantly making noisy demands of us to be fed mealworms!!! It's the male that does all the feeding of the fledglings. The female appears to completely ignore the fledglings if they are anywhere near her! She will not feed them at all! Though she will take food for herself. Now, she maybe on another nest, we don't know, but the male still defers to her if she's around and wants first dibs at the mealworms! So it was good to see three fledglings this morning, on the shed roof...being fed by two males! Whose belong to who? A fledgling even came to the back door with the male from 'Set-B' (both males can clearly be separately identified) to be fed and this is when I snapped thee photos!

April 2009 - More Blackbird chicks fledge!!

As I thought, the Blackbird chicks from the Family 'Set B' were 2 days behind Family 'Set A'. Well today Sunday 5th, they have fledged! Though we can only see 2 fledglings, we suspect that there could be as many as four. Our reasoning is that the Blackbird Mum, (who incidentally we are now feeding mealworms exclusively since Saturday morning) in between feeding the two observable fledglings, goes back to the nest with mealworms. We can hear chirping from the nest too!

The fledglings from Family 'Set A' seem to have flown the garden, so to speak! They are now nowhere to be seen and even the parents are gone. Hopefully the fledglings will have hopped into the adjoining gardens and are being looked after by their parents who would stay reasonably close to their offspring. So they are not coming to the back door to get food, which in a way is a good thing as we don't want them to become too reliant on human intervention!!

APRIL 2009 - Blackbird chicks fledge & leave the nest

Friday 3rd, 15 days after the first chick hatched and 14 days after the other two hatched, all three chicks finally left the nest! I was lucky enough to witness the last two leaving the nest, after getting home from work. The first left the nest an hour earlier. So of the four eggs laid by the female Blackbird of 'Set-A', 3 chicks successfully fledged! The unhatched egg must have been removed by the adults because it was no loger in the nest. We beleive that they may have punctured it and drank the contents and then removed the shell. As for 'Set-B', there is no sign of fledging yet. Both the adults are still taking mealworms up to the nest. I suspect that these chicks are maybe 2 to 3 days behind 'Set-A' in their development.

MARCH 2009 - Feeding the chicks!

Both parents are being tested to the full by the three chicks of 'Set-A'. When the back door is opened in the morning...there they are...waiting. Waiting for the regular handouts of mealworms. Are they reliant on us? I think that certainly when the chicks weresmaller and weaker, the Blackbirds would take every mealworn available and still would if given the chance, to safely fledge their young. Both the male and female are not at all worried about coming into the kitchen to get a beak full of grubs. The chicks are very well developed now as can be seen by the photos. The chicks from 'Set-B' still haven't been seen. This is due to the nest being high up in the conifers, so were are unable to see them. Though the parents of that brood compete quite violently at times with the parents of 'Set-A', for the grubs. We do try to ensure that both sets of parents get an equal share. Today, Sunday 29th, it being mild and sunny the birds were very active. The chicks were seen more often as they raised their beaks to the food-providing parent!

MARCH 2009 - Blackbird Chicks revisited!

This morning, Saturday, it's cold! The breeze gets up and just goes right through the body! Brr! So it's good to see that the Blackbird chicks of Set-A are now getting their feathers to keep them warm. Though mum still spends alot of time sitting on them, they are bigger now after 9 days and it is noticeable that mum now sits higher in the nest. Both mum and dad are still coming into the kitchen, more now as the chicks hunger urges the parents on! This morning we had 3 male Blackbirds in the garden. The interloper sat transfixed as he watched the two resident males continue to parade their dancing-duels in between feeding the chicks. Set-B parents are just as busy with the feeding duties, though no photos yet of their chicks.

MARCH 2009 - Blackbirds in the kitchen!

Today both the male and female Blackbirds entered the kitchen to get mealworms for their chicks! My wife snapped these two images, amongst others of the pair helping themselves to the grubs. This is the pair that nests by the back-door. Much like the Robins during the Winter, they will now come into the kitchen and root around looking for mealworms! Earlier tonight, I caught a glimpse of the male Blackbird just coming out of the kitchen while I was busy feeding Blackbird Set-B. Yes we have designated both families as Blackbird Set-A that have chicks in the nest close to the back-door and Blackbird Set-B that nest across the garden high up in the conifers. We think that the Set-B chicks are a few days younger than the Set-A chicks as both parents only really started getting into the swing of regular food sorties a few days after the Set-A birds. We haven't been able to see the Set-B chicks because of their inaccessibility but the Set-A chicks are growing very rapidly, possibly due to the sustained food supply! It is now a week since hatching and already they have that familiar gape of the beak when being fed.

MARCH 2009 - Blackbird Chicks!

On Thursday 19th, one of the 4 eggs in the nest hatched. The next day two more chicks hatched-out. The Blackbird adults are young parents and appear to be inexperienced compared to the pair nesting on the other side of the garden. Unfortunately, this nest is fairly high up in conifers and well hidden. So we don't know if the more experienced pair have any chicks or not! Whereas the nest by the back door is well constructed in the ivy but low-down and vulnerable to predation. We know why the Blackbird female built the nest by the back door - it's handy for food! The fourth egg has not hatched yet and I think that it at this stage, it must be a "dud". The chicks are growing rapidly, so the parents must be doing something right. The male Blackbird has been at the back door for mealworms and at least once, according to my Wife, stood on the door step! Speaking of visitors to the back door, The Robins have made themselves scarce. We suspect that they have paired-off and have nested elsewhere.

MARCH 2009 - Blackbird nesting revisited.

The female Blackbird is still on the nest just outside the kitchen door. She has now been on the nest for 9 days and with incubation between 11 - 17 days we are hoping for all 4 eggs to be hatched safely. She spends most of the day on the nest, only occasionally getting off and going for a bath in the shallow pool by the pond or to take mealworms that we put out for her.

MARCH 2009 - Blackbird nesting!

One of the female Blackbirds has built a nest close to the back door. She laid 3 eggs on Friday 6th and by Saturday 7th, had laid 4 eggs. With all the coming and going, she doesn't seem perturbed at all. It's as if she believes that it will be safer near the back door.

Two Coal Tits had paired up as had two Blue Tits that visit the garden. Two of the three Robins seem to have vanished. Maybe they have paired-off to nest. The third still visits the kitchen but not on a regular basis.

The Longtailed Tit has paid another visit, again to the small bush near the back door, quite near to where the Blackbird has nested.