More Blackbirds and Leaf Cutter Bees

The blackbirds are still collecting food for their juvenile but all seems a lot peaceful now.

Blackbirds often fledge about 36 hours before they can fly which means they are vulnerable to predators and the parents have a hard job feeding them. Its not that surprising that the blackbird chicks fledge early as their is not really a great deal of room in the nest. If you see a female blackbird on the nest the head and chest stick out one end and the tail sticks out the other.
(Picture from a book I wrote on blackbirds)

The chicks usually spend 2 weeks in the nest from hatching and may be fed by the parents for another three weeks before totally dependant. This will partly depend on the parents who may be ready to try for another clutch. Blackbirds may have 2, 3 or more clutches a year which is one of the reasons they are so successful. Blue tits, for example, have only one clutch and if that fails, that's it until next year. The blackbirds still mob our cat occasionally and chase of any rival blackbirds but by mid morning all was quite. Its not clear if this is the only chick they successfully reared or if there are others that managed to stay out of trouble better.

While having lunch on the decking I noticed a leaf cutter bee in one of the flower pots (with a small oak tree).

It was digging a a tunnel, pushing the soil out of the tunnel with its jaws.

About 10 minutes later the leaf cutter bee returned with a section of leaf it had cut from a nearby plant. (See entry 30th May 2007, of bees cutting leaf).

This solitary bee makes its nest with pieces of leaves, creating individual cells and lays an egg in each. (See may 3rd 2009 entry re an old leaf cutter bee nest) The bee went too and fro several times working on its nest before I had to go and work.

Late evening, and our cat discovered that the blackbird chick was at the back of our neighbours garden. The male blackbird started mobbing behaviour which attracted our attention.

It took a lot of coaxing to get her away and in the end resorted to bribing her with ham. I managed to lead her away by throwing bits of ham on the ground. The last bit I threw into our conservatory. She went through the door and I quickly shut in behind her. She gave me the most filthy look and then deliberately jumped up into my chair and looked at me as if to say, "don't even think about it".

Green woodpecker and great tit courtship feeding

The remains of the caterpillar in the garden is still in the same place and covered in ant.

I miss walking through Easthill park each day now that our daughter walks home from school with a friend. As it was a nice sunny day and I was due to spend all day at the computer, I decided to go for a quick walk.

The park was alive with bird activity, blue tits, goldfinch, blackbird, chaffinch and green finch. Many were calling including blackbird, blue tit, great tit and robin. As I walked around I heard another unusual and loud bird call. I had heard this for the last couple of years, usually deep in the wooded area of Emmaus gardens where it was not visible. I suspected green woodpecker, but have not so far seen the bird making the call. Until today that is. This time the sound was coming from the trees across the road from the park. At the moment I spotted the bird it flew south east into the park. I could see it was a woodpecker by its distinctive shape in flight and it appeared to be larger than the great spotted woodpecker I have seen on many occasions in the park and reported in this blog.

As I made my way to the other side of the park I heard the bird calling again. I took a couple of pictures from a distance in case it flew away before I got their. As I got closer I could see it was definitely a green woodpecker. However as I went to take a photograph, the battery failed and I did not have time to change the batteries before it flew off. I followed the general direction but could not see or hear the woodpecker again.

I checked out the nest box that watched last year, following the blue tit nesting, but no activity so far.

I did see a pair of foraging great tit and also observed courtship feeding (below)

As I walked home I noticed several goldfinches on the kerb, feeding on dandelion seeds. I save noticed this on a few occasions over the last few days.

Woodpecker

As I walked past Easthill Park (Portslade, East Sussex) I heard a woodpecker drumming for the first time this year. I did not see the woodpecker this time, but it is probably the great spotted woodpecker that I saw on numerous occasions last year.

Blue tits and nest box

As our daughter has been off school on her Spring holidays I have not been back to Easthill Park since the snow. As it was a sunny day I thought I would go and see if there was anything interesting about. There were the usual birds around, both visible or noticeable by their calls. The checked out the bird box near the entrance to the park but did not notice any activity.


However, a pair of blue tits have taken up residence in another box. It took a while to be sure that they were activily using the box, rather than just checking it out.


A blue tit returning to the nest box would take a very round about way of getting to the box (not wanting to give away the location of its nest site to possible predators). At the last moment it would dart in through the hole. When leaving the box the blue tits left quickly, again not wanting to attract attention. Apart from one time during the 30 minutes I watched them, only one bird was in the box at a time. The blue tit outside the box also chased off any other blue tits that came too close.