May Eve - and full time incubation begins!

I haven't been working in the kitchen today so I can't provide a blow by blow account of the days activities. What I can tell you though is that full time incubation has begun, and the female has been sitting tight on the nest all day! Is there a fifth egg? I probably won't find out for sure until she goes for a rest break and I have a chance to peek at the nest.

This development also means that there probably won't be any more pictures until the chicks have hatched. Why? Because I wouldn't dare take a picture of the hen bird while she is incubating. She is very used to me now, and is actually far more relaxed about my presence than she was last time around, but we have a net curtain on that window, and if I were to move it while she is sitting in order to take a photo I am afraid it would be too much for her. Why do we have to have the curtain? Well, our neighbours kitchen window looks directly onto ours from a distance of a few feet, so for the sake of privacy the curtain has always been there and Mrs blackbird is very used to it now. Perhaps it is the very reason she chose to nest where she has, at it is rather harder for her to see me than it is for me to see her.

The good news however is that the chicks will not be quite so bothered about the curtain if it moves while they are in the nest. The first lot of chicks were very accustomed to being looked at and while I wouldn't go as far as to say that they enjoyed modelling for me, they were ok to photograph as long as the fuss involved was minimal. Needless to say, I have no intention of doing anything to cause adult or baby birds any distress, so from now on any photo opportunities will not be taken lightly.