Watch Out For Nesting Birds!

Well a few days ago one of the troop entered the house with two eggs in hand! I was dismayed to note they were blackbird eggs.

"What on earth were you thinking moving them?"

"But they were cold! And they are on the waste wood pile!"

So 'crafty' blackbirds have made a nest on a pile of off cuts and such I had left for de-nailing for the fire.

I could leave the wood where it is until they fledge, but the nest is at the intersection point of a bunch of ends of wood and some conduit. Basically a jack straws pile.

First strong winds and this nest is toast!

However, after a lecture I donned clean gloves and returned the eggs.

Now the blackbird hen is in full occupation, probably added to the clutch.

So now we have a real headache, how to support the nest and then protect it from predators.

The hen doesn't mind me in close proximity, say three feet. So I can attempt some steadying the pile with mastic or something.

Then I can put mesh fence around, with a mesh cap that will prevent cats getting in, or even crows.

We shall see, and it is going to need a web cam to monitor the situation.

Just astonished she came back to incubate handled eggs. I was certain they would be abandoned.

Kudos Mrs. Blackbird!

Never handle birds nests unless it is unavoidable, for anyone in doubt.

Anyway; shove your hand in a blackbird's nest and next thing you know you might be up in front of the judge.

honestly ain't got a clue on this one...good luck!

Pictures to follow pal!

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Top work HF

You've certainly gone to a lot of trouble for them

Fed my regular one earlier , topped up feeders too . Off to put fox food out now :roll:

Mike

Well Mike, feed is not an issue for these by this time of year. Many predators though, the more rural you are.

We just try our best, but it is of course a pleasure too! The cock is heaving a huge worm to her regularly.

Really, I am really walking away from that and not adding a smiley.

OK, Just one.

Re:

It is here mate , the starlings take over the garden at times !
Both blue tits are feeding again , guess eggs have hatched now . They need lots of food while they're feeding young . Saw two young foxes in garden last week too



Mike

We have some song thrushes in the gutter / under the roof tile at the moment, at least three chicks as I found the hatched eggs on the lawn after the mother had a clear out

They are right over the window of our bedroom - proper chirpy at sunrise !

I will clear the nest out when the little ones have left and fix the tile but at the moment it's a real nice learning curve for our four year old who is fascinated with them She is going to take the eggs into school for show and tell along with some pictures generic off the net off what they are like



WD

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I had a little bird[I have no idea of birds names] nest in the rear cross member of my land rover chassis. I used to see this bird fly under the land rover regularly, so I pulled the rubber flap over the cross member back and there's this bird sitting in a nest! I put off going places in the landy as the bird was still flying under the landy, one day I had to go out in it, when I came back I was told a bird had been flying around the drive for an hour or so looking for the landy. We saw the bird flying to the nest after that and I take it the little birds hatched and were OK.
A year or so later a bird was seen flying under the bonnet, one day I opened the bonnet as there was a lot of squeeking, there was a nest off little birds, a mate who thinks he's Jack Hargreeves told me it was a pied wagtail; the little fuckers shat all over my engine;-)
Not a very good photo:

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We get pied wagtails as well at work. They build nests in the middle of stacks of clean beer barrels, which is lovely and also a touch inconvenient as at this time of year we start to get busy and need every cask we can. It means quarantining a whole stack of 24 casks while the birds do their stuff. My colleagues think I'm mad

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It's nice to know some other retro heads try to help wildlife too . Keep up the good work !

Mike