6 posts tagged “blackbirds”

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?

Ten days offline, but so much has happened to the birds in my windowbox in that time, and I have been left guessing more than once. Friday 11th saw a mini tragedy on the very day I was hopeful that the eggs may begin to hatch. I had my customary peep at the nest when the female was on her rest break, and instead of five eggs, I saw three, and not a chick in sight. I hadn't been working next to the window that day but our flat is tiny and I felt sure that had the nest been attacked I would have heard the alarm calls. Either the eggs had hatched, the nestlings died immediately afterwards and were removed by the parents, or something had stealthily crept up and grabbed an eggy breakfast while the female was on a break.

This did not bode well at all, and as I was going away for the weekend, I could not help but fret. Sure enough upon our return on Sunday evening, there was no mother bird, and no eggs in the nest. This grim sight was made worse by having no idea what might have happened, but we had to assume that whatever had stolen the eggs first time around must have come back later for more.

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.

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.

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.

The idea for this blog has been swimming about in my head for a year or more. I love nature yet live in a city - surely that would mean that my chances to enjoy the natural world are slim? Not at all! My pursuit of urban nature has become as fascinating and compelling as any observations that I could make in more "natural" surroundings. The British Isles has very little wild countryside anyway - most non urban land is heavily farmed and thus not necessarily as nature friendly as you would think. But the city, and specifically my city - London - has many a haven for wild fauna and flora. So what made me start writing?

One day, late in March, I returned to our flat after a weekend away to notice something rummaging around in our kitchen window-box. A glance into the box revealed a nest, and a little quiet observation revealed a hen blackbird, putting the finishing touches to it. It was a few more days before she took up permanent residence, and I had the incredible good fortune of being able to watch as she incubated the four eggs, as three of those four eggs hatched and then as the chicks grew to large and fuzzy fledglinghood. Seeing them fledge was a thrilling and anxious experience, and I have no idea if they survived longer than a few days once they left the nest. I recorded the experience very briefly here in my personal journal, but at the time I wished I had taken more detailed notes of what exactly was going on. Well, I was to get my chance. A couple of days ago the female blackbird returned to her nest and began to lay again. This blog will attempt to follow her and her chicks in the days to come; I'm going to start retrospectively from the day she first returned to lay until I catch up with myself. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I love watching the whole fantastic progress, and I hope that our second clutch of eggs will be even more successful than the first. Meanwhile, check out these pictures of the first brood to give you an idea of what is to come...