Herb Riddle's photos with the keyword: Blackbird

This female blackbird has decided to take up residence in one of our low gutters. We have had many blackbirds in our garden which lately had many large trees nearby but now many have been felled by neighbours. It was with some surprise when we saw this, as it is less than a metre away from both our kitchen window and conservatory window, where we both spend time in, and it cannot but fail to see us. Initially the male blackbird had built the nest directly on and over the down spout drain pipe and since this is the only drain for a large area of roofing, it had completely dammed the drain. After a night of light rain of course the whole range of about 5 metres of guttering was over flooding. Not a good place to raise a family! Well, at a time the bird had flown away for a short time, I pushed the nest to the left and this allowed the water to drain. I also made a shaped obstacle to put between the downspout and the nest in order to stop the next waters degrading the nest. Yesterday, we saw that the female had taken residence and my obstacle had been thrown into the garden -three metres away. Now the nest has been un-occupied for some 8 hours with the bird hopping around our lawn along with the male. -Has she abandoned it realising she was not about to lay eggs? -Watch this space. Latest: She is back on the nest - 21 April 11:30 As you can see this area is overhung so normally very dry from overhead and presumably safe from predators. ******** LATEST MAY 7 ** Just a day before our trip to Scotland for a week, we found two very small empty eggs on the ground nearby. The female later disappeared and the male was sat on the nest. However this was only for some hours as he too left the nest - presumably for the last time. - On returning from our trip, eight days later - the nest was deserted and empty. We can only conclude, that as we never saw any predators near the nest that this was the first time this young female had laid eggs and that the two she did lay, were pre-mature and the chicks dead. Blackbirds can lay as many as five eggs. It was never a great spot as although quite safe -much too close to humans and in eminent danger of being flooded out by even the smallest of rainfalls. The female seemed quite happy with our comings and goings but the male was very nervous - We have since seen at least one pair of blackbirds in our garden and so we think that she is one of them and maybe they have built a better nest in a safer place and she will start a new family as they can lay eggs up to three times in a year. Sorry to share our disappointment! ******** Enjoy full screen

Mr Black pays a visit. We are very fortunate that we have a few families of blackbirds (Turdus merula) nesting and feeding around our gardens here at home. This is the adult male resting on our side fence, keeping an eye open for the naughty magpies looking for Mr Black’s nest. Now not only does he look an attractive bird with his bright yellow beak and eye ring but his song is to die for. He and his friends often roost on the very tops of our tall conifers and sing to each other at their heart content, especially at dawn and dusk. A few days before snapping this I did the rare thing of recording his song with my phone and I have uploaded that for your pleasure here in my Ipernity Docs section. Enjoy full screen with my sound clip running.