Papa Blackbird

Well, now two blackbird chicks showed up in the garden along with the parents. Mama Blackbird’s first priority seems to be feeding those two hungry mouths. There’s no diverting her from that task! Papa Blackbird’s job description instead focuses on the other imperative: Protect the family! Most days he has it pretty easy: his efforts mostly include flying in in front of me when I happen to walk too close to where the chicks are sheltered or keeping a sharp eye on the area from up in the trees. But yesterday was a whole different day: a black and white stray cat must have found the hole in the neighbour’s fence and all of a sudden I heard a big commotion of chirping and flying around. So I went down to the garden, where Papa was launching mock attacks on the kitty and keeping up a storm of frantic alarm calls. Fortunately, my mere presence was enough to scare the stray cat off. Still, it took quite a while for poor Papa Blackbird to calm down and I haven’t seen the chicks since. Tough job being blackbird parents!