My Bird has Flown – again

Wednesday, 30 October 2013

At the beginning the year I posted about some of the birds I’ve seen around my house in Australia. Including a baby blackbird which departed the courtyard nest on New Year’s Day. From my study if I look beyond the computer screen I’m looking at now I can see into the courtyard where for the last two years a blackbird has nested.

A couple of years ago it was turtle doves (also an introduced species) which nested in the courtyard. This year the baby blackbird was out of the nest in late October, two months earlier than last year. For two whole days the baby hopped around the courtyard, sometimes flying from branch to windowsill to branch to bench. Mother bird meanwhile cheeped at it noisily from dawn to dusk, sometimes trying to tempt it out with juicy worms. The baby blackbird would not depart. Well there are no cats or other intruders in our courtyard, as long as mum kept providing the food it seemed quite content to stay. Then it was gone.

◄ This year’s baby blackbird.