1 post tagged “chicks”

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...