Two baby blackbirds, one on the ground hidden among the pot plants, the other still up on the beam above our heads. And mother, with tempting morsels in her beak, on the low wall below encouraging her offspring to come down. The noise that can be made by two small birds and one mother is astonishing.
Earlier, one of their siblings, already saying "look I can fly" crashed into my study window. I found him/her dazed in the grass and after some frantic fluttering from the baby and raucous anxiety from the father I carried the fledgling to longer grass by the sour cherry tree (smothered in small fruit) beyond the reach of the dogs.
This is a dangerous time for the blackbirds and this year's nest is in a particularly inappropriate place - on the high beam facing the kitchen door. Bertie has been watching and waiting all week. The landing site is right in front of him. Sadly one youngster has already been found and dispatched. So we keep the dogs in as much as we can and pray that the rest of the brood wastes no time learning to fly.
Fortunately it's been cold and raining all morning and the dogs are content to be in the warm. Another few hours in which the blackbirds have the terrace to themselves and hopefully have time to find their wings and seek sanctuary further afield.
You feel ao anxious for these little families, don't you...all that effort to bring them up and then the risk of losing them at the moment of leaving the nest.
ReplyDeleteLuckily we don't have cats and the dogs are not interested unless a bird flies into the house at which point it is pandemonium
Hello Fly, sorry I'm late to respond - I've been immersed in cottage cleaning for our first guests of the year. I wish our dogs were like yours. Bertie believes it is his personal duty to rid the whole of the Lot & Garonne of the bird population. It is quite funny watching him chasing across the field after a flock of sparrows.
Delete