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!