I had considered titling this blog ‘A Chapter of Accidents’, but it really hasn’t been so much ‘accidents’ as individual moments that make you wonder how long the breeding frenzy can carry on, when we’re barely in mid June, but the weather is wet and cold and windy too overnight, judging by the fallen cherries on the grass and that means that the parents must work extra hard to keep their offspring warm and fed.
It looked to be a day out of the ordinary when I saw a blackbird driving off a jackdaw that had landed on the grass – really attacking it with beak and claws and pursuing it out of the garden. From its behaviour, and that of its mate, they clearly had another brood to feed and protect, but whilst I could envisage a jackdaw taking the newly hatched, I was less sure that it would kill a fledgling. As it transpired I had the chance to make a finer judgement when the fledgling landed on the kitchen windowsill and stared in at me for some time. This one was barely out of the nest, a mottled ball of soft plumage, with brown spots over much of its body. It was very unsteady on its feet, couldn’t really manage landing on branches and I was surprised to see how little tail it had yet grown. This would clearly make it unbalanced on bark, whereas the concrete sill must have seemed an easy perch. An adult landed briefly to feed it and disappeared into another garden, whereupon the fledgling followed the parent as far as the fence and parked itself to wait for the next course…and it waited and waited. After about five minutes it flew off rather unsteadily.
Others of the regular contingent have had their own adventures. The robin has a fledgling to feed, which looks for all the world like any small brown bird, until it turns and the beginning of a red breast becomes obvious. The wood pigeon is now so fat, that it managed to dislodge a coping stone around the front of the large water tray, simply by landing on it. A dozen or so sparrows, siskins and a few chaffinches, were moving as a tight flock, so that it is possible they’ve encountered the sparrowhawk somewhere. A harassed starling parent, trying to feed all of its hangers-on in turn, whirled about and almost fed a ring dove by mistake. Finally, a male woodpecker arrived for a few moments, hanging upside-down at the wire fat ball, but it is close to the kitchen window and some movement behind the glass scared him off. The weather at least, should be more clement tomorrow.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 