Parenhood

10th May 2013. I was walking around the garden when I noticed a small ball of feathers hidden in the grass, only a couple of arm lengths away from me. I could have stood on it!
It stayed still very quietly, just breathing. It was a baby black bird that had only just left its nest.

I moved away hoping that its parents would be nearby. They were. In fact, there was also another baby black bird hidden in another part of the garden, 3 or 4 meters away. The parents were kept very busy picking up worms and insects and flying from one baby to the other.

Then, a magpie arrived into the garden. I am not sure if it had realised that there was a very tasty snack for it lying low in the grass or under a bush but Daddy blackbird did not take the chance and bravely tried to distract the magpie away from his fledgling. This annoyed the magpie which would retaliate. In the clip below, I managed to capture the key moments of that special day. Unfortunately, just as I switched off my camcorder, the black bird flew into the magpie at such speed and with such force, that the magpie lost its balance, fell on the ground and remained dazed for a couple of seconds. The magpie had had enough at that point and flew away.

Do pigeons have smelly armpits??

You may have already seen wood pigeons lift their wings high up in the air on a rainy day. It seems a good way to wash their arm pits!
Below, I filmed a wood pigeon in my garden taking advantage of the rain to clean itself. It also takes advantage of a plastic container floating in the pond to get its body that little extra wet. Have a look!

Nuthatch in the garden

As you can see in the first few seconds of the clip below, these birds are very fussy eaters on the bird feeder and therefore throw a lot of seeds on the floor to get to the ones they like best.
Last June, I noticed a baby nuthatch hidden amongst the leaves of the apple tree, pruning itself while patiently waiting for its parents to feed it and I would like to share these few moments with you in that same clip. Enjoy!

Young wrens waiting to be fed

This was a lucky encounter for me! I heard and then spotted a couple of baby wrens hidden in my hedges waiting for their parents to feed them. You can also see the parent collecting insects for them.
These birds are very small, a little smaller than a blue tit. Their tail looks like a small lolly pop sticking up.

Juvenile black bird eating a Bramley apple

In the wild, birds can't eat apples until the autumn when they are ready on the tree, so it is quite a treat for our feathery friends to get to eat them at other times of the year.
This clip was taken in May. The bird you see in the clip is a juvenile black bird who took a fancy to my apples. It would be one of the first animals to come and eat the apples I would put out every morning. As you can see, it just loved them!

Squirrel-proof peanut dispenser

We bought a squirrel-proof peanut dispenser that was put to the test by one of our resident squirrels. The squirrel ended up frustrated and angry. Is this cruelty to animals?? What do you think?

Male moor hens showing aggressive behaviour

The following clip was taken by luck. I was actually looking for another bird that had arrived in the field next door to us. It features two male moor hens showing aggressive behaviour towards each other and showing each other bottoms. This must be quite an insult in bird's language, dont' you think?!