2 posts tagged “nesting birds”

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.

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.