To think the blackbird is doing a bloody good job as a single parent?

[HarrietKettleWasHere]

I spent the weekend in my Dad's huge countryside garden.

Last year the resident blackbird had a partner, but sadly this year she's either tragically died or has absconded.

He's doing a wonderful job as a single parent, run ragged feeding his newly hatched chicks. He's feeding them mostly invertebrates but to give himself the odd break he's using the suet coconut shell. Do you think that's the birdy equivalent of occasionally shoving chicken dippers and potato smileys in the oven for an easy tea?

Colin and Collette the collared doves look like they're going to have another bash at child-rearing. In the three years I've known them, I've sadly come to realise they have an extremely lax approach to child-rearing, so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out for them.

The house sparrows have expanded yet again to the point that the laburnum hedge they populate puts me in mind of the Zona Franca area of Barcelona, such is the level of noise, daily fights and wonton shagging.

Any interesting bird goings on in your gardens?

Blackbird breeding strategy means that normally the fellow gets left behind raising the chicks while the female goes to a brand new nest, to start a new brood. Fellow follows on after her a few weeks later. They produce like 3-4 clutches a year, of which most are predated before fully fledging, afaik.

Sounds like yours is a good dad. Best parents we ever had in the garden were wood-pigeons. Dim creatures, but fab parenting team.

I have cats... sadly, no happy birdies in our garden.

Ah, maybe that's what happened here. My old blackbird pair would raise 3-4 broods totally together though!

Lovely story. I love watching birds with their young. Baby birds are pathetically adorable.
I took my nephew to the park and there was a pea hen sitting on her nest and dad was bringing her bits of twig ect.
I was crying. it was so sweet.

There's an owl who lives by me. I've not had the pleasure of meeting him yet though.

Is Colin and Collete's lax child rearing inspired by the holiday CF thread? drop the chicks off at another bird's nest?

Wait that's cuckoos isn't it?

Hurrah for efficient single parent Mr Blackbird :o

I have a Chaffinch in my garden which is persistent and loud. I haven't actually seen the thing - my app (Warblr) tells me its probably a Chaffinch and now I'm fretting about the possibility of my cats developing bird-killing efficiency skills.

Wanker new cat got into the robin’s nest. I was very sad, it was lovely watching them work so hard, they were fab parents. :(

There are lots of goldfinches about, mostly washing on the waterfall.

Mr and Mrs Bluetits are doing a super job this year. Have so far raised 6 chicks. One has died. Parents are looking a bit ragged and worse for wear. We have a nest box camera. They've been chasing the sparrows off the bird feeder too.

The starlings seemed to have fledged, I felt a bit maternal to them and my robin seems to like watching me hang out the washing.
I feel strangely protective of my garden birds, ive never had a garden until I moved here in march

Goldfinches have absolutely boomed in recent years. Never thought I'd hear a charm swooping up and down Kensington High Street or Notting Hill- but lots if those huge houses have roof gardens now and they have all moved in!

Haha, poor Colin and Collette. To my knowledge, they have never successfully raised a chick. Their only surviving one last year had to be taken into care...

Our ancient wooden bird box has a pair of tits running themselves ragged feeding the beakies.

They’re bonkers as it’s just sat in the open on the fence as the jasmine got cut down last year and a cat was sitting next to the box on the fence last weekend.

We have a lovely blackbird who has worked out if she sits on the patio table until I spot her then I’ll top up the seed feeder.

It’s how I know it’s empty, when she appears on the patio staring in at me

Oh bless him Harriet - we have a similar situation here too. Found mother B.B. dead on our driveway about 10 days ago - think delivery driver must have done it. Anyhow been supplying Daddy BB, and all the other knackered parents in our vicinity with fresh supplies of mealworms twice a day as he looked ragged and exhausted - seems to have done the trick...now have 3 plump fledglings hopping around the garden. Think there are 6 nests here in total - I could watch them all day 💕

Our tall fir tree is like a pigeon high rise with pigeons popping in and out of holes all the way up.
It’s quite funny to watch the Mr arrive back with a twig, which he presents proudly to his Mrs.
Mrs takes in and then reappears 5 secs later with the twig and chucks it away.
Mr Pigeon then stands there looking bewildered and goes off to find an identical twig which apparently meets her exacting standards.

Almost as entertaining as rescusing a local cat from my apple tree that had made the mistake of stalking a crow.

Was all confident until ALL his crow mates turned up. I went out to see what all the cawing was about to find a cowering cat clinging to a branch while being sworn at by 15 crows.

Mother that really made me laugh

😂

We have various feeders in the garden but most get mobbed by crows and pigeons so we’ve invested in a squirrel proof one that’s also big bird proof. No idea what nest activity we have as they are deep in the conifer hedges but DS ‘helped’ me fill the feeders when I got home from work today and watching him toddle about saying ‘tweet tweet’ ‘num num’ then waiting to see the birds having their dinner was cute enough to make up for lack of baby birds!

Anyone know about swallows? We have a lone swallow who often sits on the phone wires twittering but no sign of nest or swallow other half.

Is she doomed to be a singleton all summer a la Bridget Jones

She's waiting. I hope her beau turns up! Lots of them have just arrived at my dad's and haven't started nesting yet, they are just screeing about in the skies and waiting for the rest of their gang. I love swallows.

We have a very proud grey wagtail nesting on a roof next to the main road. You can see him alternating between catching food for the chicks and going in for noisy aerobatics to distract passers-by (and lorries, buses) from where the nest is.

I dispair at what young great tits are taught at school these days. I was enjoying a pint by the river last night when a brood of great tits decided to fledge. One of the six decided that over the water was the best route for his first flight. It didn’t end well, and I had to fish him out before he drowned. I put him on a branch whereupon he did the same again. I fished him out a second time and whispered to him that he wasn’t a duck, so maybe he should give up on swimming until he’d mastered the whole flying thing...

@Cherryminx don’t know about the Swallows, but I saw a house martin just starting to build a nest this morning (bank holidays always a good time for a spot of DIY, obvs), so I would think Bridget shouldn’t give up hope just yet.

Of course it could be Mr Darcy. Will update

I don’t know much about birds, but I seem to have a blackbird couple using my garden as a stopoff to their nest. They’ve pulled off the trailing bits on some of my garden pots, as well as using the bark chippings on the borders.

They like to sit on the fence and shout at my cat who isn’t causing them any bother but is obviously threatening! He just hides under a bush and looks baffled.

Aww we have some collared doves who return to the next door neighbour's sky dish every year, I love watching them build the nest back up and then coming and going as they feed their babies.

I have had to shoo crows away from it a couple of times though - are they after the babies or is this just normal behaviour and I've been mean?

We also have (what sounds like) a large number of birds in another neighbours chimney, they make a wonderful racket! I can't work out what they are though, the adults that come and go are very dark grey with a band around the neck and quite slim

I have a pair of blue tits nesting in an old terracotta jug abandoned by previous owners on our garden wall. Think they are trying to encourage them to leave home today, but the little tits are having none of it. Mum and dad keep perching on the edge looking in and shouting at them. Only to be ignored. I am familiar with this scenario.