The second blackbird fledgling, who should really be nicknamed ‘Tail-less’, is gradually becoming more agile amongst the larger branches – and he is starting to grow a tail. Today, he spent a deal of his time at the bottom of the garden, beginning to follow his parents around as they forage, rather than wait somewhere… Continue reading Dumpling blackbird II
Author: baebell
More-or-less retired academic in the lively arts.
I can do this…
Progress of a sort – at least two of the plush starling fledglings have learnt to feed themselves. One has found that it can balance on the top rungs of the fat ball feeder and reach the food below. It was undoubtedly easier because there were two newish fat balls, so that it didn’t have… Continue reading I can do this…
The light and the shade…
Some moments went as expected this morning, some were new and some saw the darker elements of this world emerge. When I pulled up the kitchen blind this morning, there was a male woodpecker at the vertical on the peanut wire cone. One of the older blackbird fledglings has discovered that he can peel the… Continue reading The light and the shade…
Close and closer…
A good deal of today’s activity has been a familiar mixture of importunate fledglings, frantic parents, fleeting jackdaws and the tank-like body of the wood pigeon working back and forth across the grass like an automatic vacuum cleaner on the lawn. The major flash of colour came from a male woodpacker, who came right up… Continue reading Close and closer…
The youngsters rule the roost…
There was a story in the news media about a woman who’d put three duck eggs bought in a supermarket into an incubator and all three hatched. The ducklings were pictured and were perfect fluffy yellow bundles with downy plumage. I thought of them this morning as a slightly ragged blue-tit, with faded colours, attacked… Continue reading The youngsters rule the roost…
Packing them in…
Today was a blur of sparrows. The parents and fledglings barely left the garden, even when the jackdaws were shooed away, they went as far as the hedge motel and then returned to the caged feeder where the adults went behind the wire to prise out part of the nuts. The problem for the adult… Continue reading Packing them in…
This and that…
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… Continue reading This and that…
I can do this…
The process by which the fledglings learn to feed themselves is clearly a tricky one and today the garden was filled with groups of birds at different stages in the learning. A family of sparrows, possibly two families, had a clutch of youngsters, not long out of the nest to judge by their plumage and… Continue reading I can do this…
A flash of gold…
There were a pair of wide-eyed goldfinches in the greengage tree this morning, with crisp and brightly coloured plumage, red and gold but with none of the white buttons that I associate with their adult tailcoats. Their tentative approaches to the hanging feeders and the impunity with which they then plunged down to the grass… Continue reading A flash of gold…
I spy…
It was a game we played on long car journeys – looking for a ‘plush coo’, a cow with a particularly mottled red and white hide which looked smooth and thick, like the upholstery on an old-fashioned sofa. I saw a plush starling this morning, a youngster with a rich velvety plumage that wasn’t quite… Continue reading I spy…
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 