Blackbirds

Last night when I took Holly out into the garden just before we went to bed the Blackbirds alarm called at us! This is very unusual because they usually just sit on top of the garage waiting for us to either go inside or settle down at one end of the garden so they can get on with whatever they want to do at the other end.

I talked to them and told them it was only me and Holly and they did stop alarming but remained very alert and perched on vantage points.

As we went round the garden I soon spotted the reason for the alarm calls, there was a baby blackbird sitting on the lawn. I diverted Holly away from it and we went back inside as soon as possible.

This morning the baby bird was still sitting in the same place on the lawn, I thought that it had probably perished overnight so we went over for a closer look. Holly's big wet nose got there first and gave it a big SNIFF. Poor little thing must have been asleep because it's eyes popped open, it's head came up, the beak opened and it made "feed me" noises. I forced Holly to beat a retreat - she was fascinated with this thing on the lawn and wanted to investigate it some more.

As I was preparing my lunch in the kitchen I got a fright, a pair of magpies went hurtling past the window at great speed, one of them even hitting it as it went past. They were being driven out of the garden by Mr & Mrs Blackbird who were out and about protecting their baby.

I looked out a little while later and Mrs Blackbird was busy attacking snails, I assume this was going to be breakfast.

At Holly's last trip round the garden before I left for work baby bird was still there and still doing it's best to look like a dead leaf, the parents were both around but neither of them alarm called or went into any higher level of surveillance mode. I hope they have realised that neither Holly or I am a threat and have gone back to ignoring us as normal.

Baby Blackbird pretending to be a dead leaf.