We have been a bit busy lately, but better
late than never as they say. The first four chicks started fledging
on the 24th May, and you can see one of the chicks taking the plunge
in this picture
Not the best picture in the world but
another takes its first foray out in the world
As each chick leaves, the others show signs of
stress, this is the seventh getting ready to go
Then there was six
A shot from above of the remaining five
The following morning they did not delay,
the first took flight just before six am
The next left just after seven, you can see
it just by the window frame
The third chick left quite soon after
Then there were just two, both parent birds
were returning to feed the chicks at this time
The last little chick took a fair time to
gather up its nerve
The parent bird came in and fed the chick it
then gathered muster and went for it
Not the best flight but anything that gets
you by we guess
This is an edited video of the final five
as they leave the nest
Back at the Blackbird nest progress seems
slow, we had expected the eggs to start hatching very soon. can you
see that there is a dent in the egg on the right
You can just make out the anomaly in this
picture, well we are thinking that they are starting to hatch
This nest is plagued by ants as we are sure
many in bushes are, mostly a snack for the sitting bird but a pest
fort the chicks to come
Imagine our surprise when the female
picked up the egg which must have had a problem and removed it from
the nest
So as of this morning the 31st of may there
are now only three eggs
We have a video of these strange events,
and you can watch it here
