Garden Wildlife UK

Male blackie toady inside the ground cage feeder, rootling around. When he emerged he had a beakful of suet pellets and flew off over <<< there.
I think the babies will know what they are when they begin to visit

When I came down stairs to breakfast this morning there was a black hunched shape on the front which was completely still. I grabbed the binos and the shape was the back view of a Blackbird. My first thought was that it had been hit by a car on the road that runs past the chateau and it was brown bread. I decided to have brekky before dealing with the corpse and while I did so another B/bird arrived on the front lawn and was trying to incite what I thought was a dead bird into a fight. My "dead" bird suddenly found some life and tried to react to the provocation. I then shooed the stroppy bird away and went for a proper look. He was in a poor state having lost feathers and his right eye was closed. I managed to check his wings and there seemed to be no breaks but despite his efforts he could not make any real attempt at escaping. I resolved to leave him in situ and take some food out and wait to see if there was any improvement. Over the next few hours he looked to be perking up alittle and then the stroppy bird returned still looking for a fight and my bird suddenly tried to fly away but only succeeded on getting on top of my front garden wall. I returned to the garden and crept up on his blind side and returned him to the safety of my garden. As the day has progressed s has he and at one point this afternoon I saw him hopping across the drive to another point of seclusion where he has remained until about ten minutes ago. He is now sat on the fence between myself and next door still looking a little bewildered but a whole lot better than at 8 o'clock this morning.

(Hopefully) Happy ending
Meggle for your selfless acts, Jacksparrow .

D'you think it was a cat ??

There is a post script to this tale. Shortly after I posted the first report the bird shifted from the fence up into a tree on the boundary of my property. I thought that's good he is safe for the night. He'd only been there about five minutes when stroppy Bb reappeared and made it his business to hassle my recovered bird into trying to find a new refuge. He was followed to the next tree in a neighbour's garden and chased from there out of my sight.

It has happened once before in the dim and murky past but one of my Blackbirds has discovered he can perch on the hanging feeder and stuff himself with sunflower hearts.

Just read the second chapter of the blackbird tale, Jacksparrow .
Sorry about the hasslement - Nature can be hard .

An athletic blackie to cheer you up - Nature can be wonderful .

One of my female Blackies has acquired a new skill which I've not witnessed previously. She has found a way to feed on the hanging fat ball feeder. There is plenty of wing flapping involved but apparently successful.

What talented blackbirds you do have, to be sure

One of my male Blackbirds rocked up minus all his tail feathers today but otherwise seemingly unharmed It rather begs the question as to how he became so careless. I'm a thinking a moggy may be still spitting out feathers somewhere in the vicinity

I go with that . Fortunate blackbird (well, sort of).