Bertie the Baby Blackbird

I saw what I think was a little sparrow spending 2 days last week busily building a nest in a nesting box in the garden. That was 10 days ago and I’ve been disappointed not to see any activity since.

Should I assume after 10 days she’s not going to return to lay her eggs?

What lovely tales of baby birds. We have been hearing some strange noises at night! and after a bit of detective work have found we have baby owls in a nearby tree. Not sure what type of owl though possibly little owls as we've had them nest before.

Our baby sparrows have fledged and six of them were feeding from our feeders this morning. The young starlings are growing up very quickly and are surprisingly good at sticking up for themselves against the adults! They are also incredibly vociferous!

Mr Blackbird serenades us every day - beautiful ?

One of our blackbirds was pulling up worms when I went out to hang the washing this morning. He carried on regardless then decided he'd had enough of me in his garden and started to grumble at me, so I told him he'd have to share the garden, it's mine too. Then he came and sat on the fence right near me, carried on telling me off and glaring at me, then flew on to the shed roof and sat there until I went in.

He was obviously defending the nest and feeding his young but he was very vociferous, wasn't a bit scared and wanted to see me off!

All best wishes to Bertie

I have a baby herring gull on the woodshed roof. We have taken to going into the garden with an umbrella up to protect us from the baby’s parents who guard their chick ferociously. DH has a cut on his head from a dive bomb.

Surprisingly herring gulls are on the red list.

I reckon we have 3 more weeks to go before he fledges! It is ridiculous, I can’t hang out the washing or do much gardening under the umbrella.

We have had loads of starling young as they go from the coast onto the downs every morning, and stop to feed on the meal worms I put out.

My guess is he's fledged, Lisagran and you'll probably see him about soon - they are very good at hiding out of sight once fledged.

Well, we’re empty nesters now . I’ve seen the parents, but no sign of Bertie. I hope he wasn’t taken by a cat or a gull.

We have an abundance of birds in our garden this year. The usual blackbird family seem to have been joined by lots of tiny birds - probably sparrows but could be tits all living in the foliage on the back wall, 2 big pigeons are permanent residents and 2 magpies have visited. I throw the cats food out on a morning and they all come rushing in to gobble it up. The outdoor cat doesn't bother with them and they just ignore him sitting there - the indoor girl sometimes watches but is too big and clumsy to do any chasing . I bought a bird seed feeder last week and enjoy watching them all taking turns at it while I'm washing up - yesterday my husband said it was like a train station with 3 on it and another 4 waiting in line on the wall

We have blackbirds, bluetits and robins nesting in the garden. We love watching the blackbird feeding its young, the young ones are really big now. We had to keep shooing the magpies away from one bluetit nest though.
Our DD has a resident blackbird in her garden, she calls him Ben. Poor Ben has only one leg, seems to manage ok though.

I've got a Housemartin nest outside my bedroom in the roof fascia.
The little darlings have been waking me up in the morning with their twittering although I haven't heard them for the past few days. They're beautiful birds. They come back every year without fail.

I watched a little sparrow busily building a nest in a nesting box on the back fence 10 days ago. She spent 2 days back and forth building up a lovely lush nest. But no sign of the bird since.

I was looking forward to watching the progress after the eggs were laid. But 10 days have passed and the bird hasn’t returned to the box. Do you think it’s unlikely the bird will return now to lay eggs after an absence of 10 days? I hope the neighbouring cats haven’t pounced.

Our Blackbirds nest is too high to see into, but we can watch the parents flying in and out.
They have become quite used to us sitting around watching!
The cats are everywhere though, Oh the worry!

I fear you may be right about Bertie lemongrove - he certainly got rather large rather quickly!

Lisa.....do you think the innocent faced Bertie has pushed one egg out and eaten the other? It does happen sadly.
Blackbird babies are enormous aren’t they? We have three different nests around the garden (all blackbirds) unusual as we normally have bluetit nests as well as robins.They are all fledging now and often sit in our large planters.

Lovely stories We've got a sparrow's nest in the roof fascia boards - complete with very loud babies! It's wonderful to watch the poor parents to-ing and fro-ing with food for them (endlessly!).

We also have a whole planet's worth of starlings and their young. The noise of their squabbling on the birdfood feeder is deafening! Watching the parents feeding the young on the feeders is fascinating, talk about the noisy wheel getting the oil!

Oh that’s lovely Merlot, though I can see it’s a pain!

We have a robin sitting on eggs in the greenhouse. It's a pain because I have a lot of tomato, aubergine and pepper plants to see to.

I water when she nips out to feed.

Lisagran

Yes, I keep shooing neighbour’s cat out of our garden!

I really must get new glasses. I read that as shooting the neighbour's cat!

Lovely to see Bertie, Lisagran!

Yes, I keep shooing neighbour’s cat out of our garden!

I have 3 fat babies in my hedge, the parents are very busy feeding them at the minute, I haven't yet got a photo but I trying. I can just see them from my window unfortunately so can my cats who are housecats but try to scratch the glass to bits.