Blackbird nesting and ruling the roost....

[Catherine]

We have a kitchen extension with a gap between us and next door (1 metre wide) Two weeks ago I was attempting to clear the junk that accumulates there over the winter only to come eye ball to eye ball, (and I mean really close) to a mother blackbird sitting on a nest. I immediately backed out of the space and left her to her own devices.

Now they (Mr & Mrs) are feeding like crazy and they have four chicks in there. We keep an eye out for the usual preditors but we are hoping because of the close proximity to our house that they will leave them alone.

We are able to go very close to them, because our bins are down the side and they dont blink at us moving around, and sitting on our patio does not bother them they just fly over our head. But just over a week ago we put washing on the washing line and Mrs Blackbird gave us such grief for about ten minutes from the fence. So we moved the washing and then she carried on feeding. We are now ruled by a blackbird

[glallotments]

A plot neighbour found an abandon clackbird nest with eggs in the middle of her rhubarb - almost at ground level which is strange for a blackbird. It was also alongisde the 'road' that runs around our site so it was unsurprising that they gave up on it.

[vegpatchmum]

Sadly we've found the body of our Mrs B by the greenhouses today. Her tail feathers had been ripped out. Probably a cat.

Thankfully her chick has fledged and dad is still feeding it. Very sad day

VPM
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