We both enjoy a spot of "twitching" now and again, although neither of us would profess to be an expert.

We do what we can to attract a wide variety of birds to our garden and have over the years had nearly 40 different species. We have many feeding stations dotted around, bird baths and in season I put out live food for the little ones.

The story of Four Little Blackbirds:

The last couple of weeks in April:

A blackbird mum builds her nest in silk tree by the hot tub, despite being scared away on numerous occasions by us. We really don't think it is the best place for a nest - just inches away from the window and about a foot from the back door. But she is obviously determined to live here! Of course, it is a prime location, with the steam from the hot tub providing warmth and the roof giving shelter against the elements.

14th April

Today mum lays one egg in the nest, so it is now too late for us to do anything about getting the nest moved.

15th April

Another egg appears, so she obviously feels safe and happy here.

15th April

Egg number three arrives - I wonder how many she will have?

16th April

The family is complete, with four eggs in the nest. They are a beautiful shade of turquoisy-blue. I am getting very excited at the thought of having babies this close to the house.

Blackbirds lay eggs at a rate of one per day, and don't start incubating them until all the eggs are laid, so that they all hatch at the same time.

We set up a remote video camera in the window so that we can watch the progress of the eggs

1st May     I am watching the blackbird on the nest as I work on the PC. When she flies off I can see the blue of her egg sticking up over the top of the nest. The next time I look at the screen, the blue is gone. I study the picture closer, and I can see movement in the nest. Whooohooo, I think I have a baby! I grab the camera and rush out to find this blind, naked and helpless little fellah in the nest. Awwwhhhhhh.This picture was taken when the baby was less than ten minutes old!

2nd May The first thing I do when I get up this morning is to check on the nest. Still only one baby. After breakfast I watch the screen and see mum pick up half an eggshell and eat it, so I realise another chick must have hatched. I wait for her to leave the nest and rush out to take a few more photos. We then go out for the morning and leave the family in peace.

2nd May   By the time we get back at lunchtime, we have three babies. I hate to say it, but at this tender young age the babies are rather ugly. They have very little fur, certainly no feathers, their eyes have not yet been developed, neither have wings or proper feet. But of course, in a mother's eyes, their babies are always beautiful. :-)

4th May  For a while we were afraid that only two babies had survived, as we could only see two little mouths peeping up above the rim of the nest when the mother returned with food. But on closer inspection, it appears that they are all three alive.

The fourth egg, however, still has not hatched. The babies are now getting a little bit of fur and you can the their blood vessels as well as their little feet.

5th May  We set up my stills camera in the window in order to be able to capture the mother (or father) when she gets back to the nest with food for the babies. They are constantly hungry by the looks of it.Two courting doves accidentally got on the terrace, and for a while Mr B was very concerned. He sat on a nearby perch and watched very carefully at the proceedings. Of course, the doves were much more interested in each other than the little blackbird babies.

6th May

For a long time we thought she was a single mum, but as soon as the babies arrived, dad was on the scene. He is a devoted father and does his fair share of parenting.

7th May This morning Mrs B was doing her housework in the nest, pushing and shoving at the babies to clean underneath them. You could almost hear her saying 'lift your feet, I want to vacuum underneath'. LOL The babies were not happy about being disturbed and were squeaking and gaping.Later on a starling was being very aggressively chased off the patio table by Mr B. He obviously felt that the starling got a little too close to his babies for comfort.

8th May  The babies are now six days old. They are gaining colour by the hour, and they are looking a lot more like real birds now. Their necks are getting long and it is getting rather crowded in the nest. They still spend most of their time sleeping, only waking up for food time. We put out fresh, live worms for the parents to feed them, and they love it!                                                                                                  We spent a very anxious half hour today, when a sparrow hawk swooped down into a tree at the bottom of our garden and took a bird. Both Mr and Mrs B were out at the time, and I couldn't relax until I saw them both safely back on the nest. Phew.

9th May   Mr B follows me all around the garden as I am putting out bird food, peeking into the bowl where I normally put live worms. He has obviously started to associate me with food. Awwwhhhhh.

10th May The babies are getting larger by the day, and soon they will be fighting for space in the little nest. Mum and dad are having to fetch an increasing amount of worms as they grow. The fourth egg is still in there, unhatched, but it doesn't seem to bother them.

11th May Mum still comes back to the nest in between getting worms for her babies. She will lay down on the nest to keep them warm, but as you can see, they are getting a little bit too big for this now.

13th May  It can't be long now before they will fly the nest. They are looking like real little birds now, albeit a little baby fluff still around their heads, and the tail feathers are not fully developed yet. They are beginning to preen themselves and flex their wings in preparation for the big take-off.The little birds are so well house trained that when they want to poo they turn their little pink bums towards mum or dad who will scoop it up and either eat it or take it away to be deposited of somewhere else.

14th May   A moment of excitement today as one of the babies stood on the edge of the nest, jumping up and down and spreading its wings. I held my breath as I waited to see it take off into the big world out there, but it chickened out and went back into the nest. Maybe next time.

15th May

This morning the bravest of the babies was stood right on the edge of the nest as I arrived down in the morning, and within a couple of minutes he was gone! Out into the big bad world. We did see him with his mummy in the garden later on.

When we returned back from a day out, the other two were still in the nest. One was peering over the edge, standing up and flexing her wings, but she didn't look like she was quite ready to go yet.

16th May

When I got up this morning, there was only one baby left in the nest, and within a short time, he flew out too. Straight into the window! Splat! He rather dazed himself, and was hopping about the ground looking very confused for some ten minutes, and then he plucked up courage and went!

I shall really miss them now that they are gone - I have enjoyed following their progress over the last few weeks. I am really looking forward to having the use of the hot tub again though.

 

24th May

This morning I saw one of the babies for the first time. It came back to the terrace to get some food, and spent a long time sitting on the bird table. It was so nice to see it again, like an old friend.