4 posts tagged “birds”

Spot The birdie

May eve, and the revelation of what I had already suspected - a fifth egg to complete the clutch - saw me wondering a big wonder; how on earth could there possibly be enough room in the nest to accommodate that many nestlings? It seemed absolutely rammed full with just three last time, and I am keen to see how such a large brood gets on. Will nature get nasty this time; will I see chicks starve, fall out of the nest, become sickly and die? I am considering getting a stock of meal-worms to leave out in a dish in the back garden. I am softhearted - no impassive recording of nature for me. I have become involved, invested, call it what you will. It is irresistable.

The above image was shot through the net curtain and approximates what I will be getting to see every day now while incubation takes place. Actually, the view I have is a damn site clearer than this would lead you to beleive, but you can make out the star of the show if you squint.

A fourth egg was laid today

The female was on the nest by 10.30 today - she has a proper routine it appears! She spent a lot of time on the nest, although still not as much as she did once her clutch of eggs was completed last time, so we'll see if she has any surprises for us tomorrow. She was served lunch again by the male - this time a beak full of worms, and this time he seems to have got the hang of things. There was a fair bit of drama today, and I got to see how the pair interact when danger is near. Often I heared the thin "seep" call coming from the male, who was perched close by but somewhere hidden, as he warned his mate to sit tight. At least, that's what I infer from it, as whenever he made that call she would shuffle down further into the nest in an attempt to become invisible. What was he seeing? I would go out into the garden to try and see the potential threat, but usually with the "seep" call, I could not. Mid afternoon there was a commotion of a different magnitude when a magpie attempted to raid a neighbouring blackbird nest in a tree three gardens down from ours. All the blackbirds of the neighbourhood had come out in support of their neighbour and were frantically mobbing the magpie, screeching, pecking and giving the familiar rattling, cackling alarm call that sounds to me as if they are shreiking "OMG OMG OMFG!!!!!!" Our male was presumably taking part, and the female was going through agonies of curiosity. Every so often she would creep very slightly forward in the nest in an attempt to see what was going on, but the screeches of her mate would see her sliding back into the nest and hiding in it as far down as she could go. Obviously he couldn't come to her in case he led the magpie to the nest, but once the danger had passed and the magpie was driven away he took up his position in the dead ash tree and began his territorial song. As soon as he did this, the female relaxed visibly, fluffed herself out and began fidgeting contentedly. It's fascinating to see how much the male can communicate to her.

There are three eggs now in the nest

I am beginning to get used to her ways. She's there by 10.30, and again I am already hard at work; in fact I'm concentrating on what I'm doing so hard that although I pretty much know that she is only in the nest for one reason and that is to lay another egg, I completely miss seeing her egg labour. In my defence, it has to be said that she seems to be getting as laid back about the whole process as I am, and perhaps it just wasn't as dramatic this time around. While she is still on the nest, the male bird comes to give her some food. He doesn't like me much; never did. He tuts in dissaproval when he spots me, but VERY quietly, almost under his breath. I couldn't quite make out what he had brought for lunch - it looked like a big lump of bread, and I can only hope it was something more nutritious. Mabe one of the neighbours has a fat bar out for the birds, but it looked a bit dry to be fat. At any rate there was a lot of inexpert fumbling as he tried to give the offering to his mate, and at one point he simply dropped it on her head. Something I noticed with the first brood was that the parents actually had to learn how to feed their young. I guess they were first timers, because when the chicks hatched they simply waved the food above the frantic babies beaks, occasionally dropping food onto them in a completely random way. Once the stronger of the chicks had grabbed it's first meal they seemed to get the hang of what they were supposed to do and food was rammed firmly into whichever open beak seemed hungriest. How odd that the male seems to have forgotten what to do! she stayed quite a bit longer this time, and even returned mid afternoon for another hour, which made me suspicious but when I looked there were three eggs rather than four.

Eggy closeup

first two eggs

Well strictly speaking, the hen bird had returned briefly to her nest once or twice, very fleetingly, in the previous week. I'd noticed her doing some very energetic rummaging inside the nest cup, head down, tugging furiously, then settling herself into the cup and rounding it out again with vigorous pummelings of her breast. At the time I was unconvinced that this heralded a return, although looking back I was just thinking that way to avoid dissapointment. Her spring cleaning was so vigorous that she turned the entire nest by about 45 degrees.

26 April:- I come into the kitchen at about 10.00am and get ready to set up my work for the day when I notice the hen bird is sitting on her nest. I'd checked the nest the previous night so I knew it was empty; when she left the nest about 1 1/2 hours later, it was a thrill to see the pretty sky blue egg she had laid, and even lovelier to realise that she may have been in the process of laying it as I sat working only a couple of feet away. She knows I am there, and as long as I stay on my side of the glass I suspect she doesn't mind.

27 April:- She's a bit later today; she arrives at around 11.30am, and I am already hard at work. I keep a close eye on her from the moment she arrives, and am rewarded with seeing her go through her egg labour. Within about 10 minutes or so, (during which she fidgets and turns upon the nest) she sinks further into the nest, her breathing becomes laboured and it is evident that she is hard at work too. I'm unsure that I saw the precise moment an egg was laid, but she certainly relaxed noticably at one point, and a minute or so later went head first into the nest to see what she could see. She sat tight on the nest for about another hour and a half, then flew off. It tickled my spine when I peered into the nest cup and saw a second egg of that gorgeous blue, patterned at either end with maroon speckles. I have learned that blackbirds only begin full time incubation of their eggs once the full clutch has been laid; it allows all the eggs to develop at the same rate. However it seems crazy to me that such precious things should be left pretty much out in the open for however many days it takes before the whole clutch is laid. I can't help feeling protective of them, and when I see a crow perched on our neighbours roof, I open the window suddenly to startle it before it can get an eyefull of eggy bounty.