It’s been a week of hot weather and I am enjoying making full use of my garden. It’s sometimes the only way to keep cool. However, a family of blackbirds have taken up residence and we are slowly learning the consequences! It is really interesting to have such a close-up view of nest-building, feeding and flying lessons but also really inconvenient!

Nest-building was messy, as it involved rooting around for any possible loose material in our garden, not all of it finished with from our point of view, but taken off by the blackbirds anyway, without even asking. We watched helpless as the proud future parents edged their way along our shed roof, pulling stray pieces of roof insulation from underneath the corrugated roof and flying off with their prizes. Don’t mind us – we’re glad to be of service!

Feeding has been another battle between them and us, as their preferred flight path (constantly - all day long!) passes a foot above our garden table where we like to eat in good weather (i.e. now). We have compromised in the end by moving the table further up the garden. Now a new delight is in store for us as the first small blackbird has flown/fallen from the nest in the hydrangea bush onto the ground and is hopping speedily all round the garden, followed by the mother, who glares threateningly at me when baby gets too close. It’s all a bit alarming as baby spends most of its time getting too close. So far I’ve decided to give them a bit of space and retreated indoors but this can’t go on! Whose garden is it anyway?!

Within a day the miniature blackbird has taken flying lessons. Already he/she flutters in leaps and bounds from ground to garden chair; from chair to fence; from fence to next door’s tree and back again. Mother and father hover anxiously near, foraging grubs and worms in their beaks to feed to the ever-open mouth. It is a surprisingly big small blackbird already! Mum and Dad are very busy, flying to and fro with beaks full of unimaginable, wriggling dinners. No protests from the diners. Everything just disappears into those enormous wide-open beaks and they are steadily growing in size and strength. Growing up happens fast in bird world.

I wonder when the adults get a break… Mum managed a quick bath this afternoon and then retreated to the hibiscus to shake the water droplets off her feathers before resuming her place on the feeding rota. Maybe that was also an object lesson for the babies in personal hygiene. Amazing how the youngsters just copy everything their parents model for them and turn quickly into small replicas of mum and dad.

The flying lessons continue. This part of the proceedings is very entertaining. However, now there are three birds involved in the busy criss-crossing of our small garden and we’re not too sure how many extras will emerge from the busy nest. Impossible to count, but there’s a lot of cheeping! When will it be safe to take back the ground we have lost and eat outside again in this lovely weather? The male blackbird does less than his fair share of the feeding and spends his time sitting perched on rooftops singing. It looks like a rough deal for Mum but Dad seems to have the job of marking out the family’s territory and warning off predators, so an important job. However, for us too it’s hard work having such a big family and it has all kinds of complications we never thought of, like cleaning up the garden chairs! Must stop now and replenish the bird bath - it’s empty again! 

Julie Duke

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