A Black Saga

As I write this Mrs Blackbird is sitting rather forlornly on the very top of my Acer Brilliantissum tree surveying the garden. I'm afraid she'll search in vain. Mr Blackbird scuttles across the patio with a worm dangling from his yellow beak looking for his off spring.

This sad saga began back in mid April when we noticed the industrious pair flying back and forth into our ivy covered Gazebo. Nest building was happening in earnest and after a few weeks hard work Mrs Blackbird seemed happy with the results.

By early May she had laid two eggs. She may well have laid three, as we spotted an empty shell lying on the patio one morning just after we realised she had eggs.

The nest was well concealed deep in the ivy inside the gazebo and she settled down to incubate the eggs. Mr B was a good husband guarding her and keeping other birds the same size as himself away from the garden. It was quite entertaining watching from the kitchen window his antics when attempting to shoo away a flock of starling that had flown down to bath in the stream.

The concealment of the nest has been of utmost importance as Magpies were nesting just a few yards away in our neighbours pine tree and squirrels run up and down the fence a few feet from the nest . Both creatures wouldn't be above robbing the nest of either eggs or young.

Eventually the eggs hatched and Mr B was busy fetching food for his wife and chicks. As the chicks grew Mrs B joined his in the food search in between long periods of brooding the chicks. Then, as Blackbird chicks often do, they fledged rather early, leaving the nest and hiding in the undergrowth in the garden while their parents continued to find and feed them.

After another couple of weeks I became aware of Mrs B fetching new nesting material to the nest. In early June three more eggs appeared in the nest and Mrs B settled down to incubate the new clutch of eggs.

In due course they hatched and the feeding frenzy started all over again. the incubation period this hatching seemed to be longer and the time Mrs B brooded the hatchlings was also longer. I assume this was due to the period of cold windy weather we went through.

The chicks eventually fledged and like their siblings in the previous brood they hid in the undergrowth waiting for food from Mum and Dad. We think the fledging was caused by some drama in the garden for when we opened the back door one morning a female Blackbird lay dead on the patio. Mr B sat on the Acer calling. Hoping he would carry on with the feeding we buried the unfortunate bird. Mr B carried on calling and suddenly over fence Mrs B appeared with a beak full of food. What a releif. The strange bird must have been chased by Mr B and she flew with some force into the conservatory window. Mr and Mrs B both carried on feeding and we got glimpses of the little birds occasionally. If they were in open view and we got too close Mr B squawked his piercing alarm call to warn us off. The neighbours cat got even worse treatment and scuttled off when we opened the door to shoo it away.

Then disaster. Yesterday morning I scooped one tiny fledgling out of the pond. In the afternoon I scooped out the second drowned bird. This morning the third little bird was sitting under the Gazebo being fed when we went out but by late this afternoon a third little body was scooped out of the pond.

The only consolation is that one of the first fledglings is still about and being given the occasional mouth full of food. I wonder if Mr and Mrs will go for a third brood as Often they do. Watch this space.

The photos ? Well they were taken very briskly and sneakily taken when I observed both parents had flown off to hunt food.