Garden Springwatch continued continued!

Following on from the last blog....
19th June - 3 very contented chicks almost ready for the big wide world as shown above.

20th June - The nest was empty! After hunting around the garden, I found one of the fledglings hidden in my overgrown meadow as shown above.

Assuming that the 3rd egg hatched on the 8th June, and the other two hatched on the 7th June, then it took 13-14 days before they fledged.

25th June - Unfortunately, there are no sign of any of the fledglings.

Garden Springwatch continued

Following on from the last blog....
7th June - 2 baby Blackbirds in the nest.

8th June - My guess is that there are now 3 babies in the nest.

14th June - 3 baby blackbirds were seen being fed. Clearly the other two eggs were not going to hatch. (I could just see one of the eggs still in the nest).

17th June - The picture above was taken, and shows 3 healthy babies filling up the nest nicely.
To be continued ....

Garden Springwatch

19th May - I noticed a female Blackbird furiously ripping my pond plants apart to find suitable nesting material. The foolish result was a nest built in the climbing Hydrangea anomala shrub, against my back fence, approximately 1metre high.

20th May - A Carrion Crow was perched above the nest, presumably checking it for eggs. After I scared it off I checked the nest, but there were no eggs.

23rd May - I checked the nest and there were 3 eggs which were not being incubated.

24th May - She was back on the nest in the morning.

29th May - 5 eggs in the nest.

From the above, it looks like one egg is laid per day (21st - 25th) and incubation doesn't start until all the eggs are laid. Presumably, this is to ensure that they all hatch together.

7th June - 2 baby Blackbirds in the nest, one of which conveniently posed for the photograph above.

Assuming the 25th was the start of incubation, then our eggs took 14 days to hatch.

To be continued ....