Not quite the end...

Well it just gets curiouser and curiouser. The female blackbird returned to the nest this morning. She diddn't stay, just plumped up the bedding and went off a few minutes later.

The thing is, if she had been violently attacked on the nest by other birds or rodents (the location is absolutely squirrel proof though) I am certain she would have abandoned this nest and possibly even the territory - this has already happened to an unlucky pair of blackbirds who got raided by squirrels in next doors garden. They left and never came back. So when I saw that all the eggs were gone, I assumed the worst, that we would never see her again. Wether the nest was attacked or robbed stealthily while she was on a rest break, I feel sure that a robbed nest would be too much for any bird.

So was it robbery, or were the eggs perhaps bad and removed by the parent birds themselves? Did the eggs hatch, producing sickly chicks that died soon after? And will the female return to lay yet more eggs?