Some of the fledglings are venturing into the small water tray for a bath, but it is a technique that needs refining. You would think that the little birds whose fledgling behaviour entails following closely on their parents fluttering their wings would find it easier to translate that movement into the bathing technique, but they seem to be too fluffy, their feathers not strong enough to risk submerging. Now the evening sprinkler is on they’re perched in a row along the trellis getting a shower.
The fledglings like the blackbirds, that are quietly parked somewhere waiting for their parents to deliver food to them are now ready to try to copy their parents’ actions in the water tray. Dumpling hasn’t quite got the hang of it yet; he or she, stands watching the parent and once the larger bird is finished and flown off, Dumpling tries it out. The tricky thing seems to be moving its wings and staying still. It has got to grips with the wing fluttering and ducking its head, but it has to move forward at the same time, with the result that it’s making circuits of the water tray…or three-quarter of the water tray when it collides with the stone weighting the tray down, gets out of the tray, trundles past it and gets into the water tray again.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 