They grow so fast, here they are on 12 July ...
... just a week later and here they are with both parents looking almost as big as them! The youngsters have got the brown and white feathers on their bodies, the adults are a more uniform brown.
The second of the two have fledged today leaving an empty nest :-)
Just after fledging is quite a hazardous time, early flights can see them crash landing on the ground and if they land in vegetation they often can't take off again if it's too dense. The team at Rutland have already rescued a youngster that they saw land on the ground, fortunately they found him and returned him to his nest. Another went missing overnight and they feared it had been preyed on by a fox but the nest day it turned up looking muddy but otherwise none-the-worse. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that "mine" will make it. The team will keep me updated via their blog.
In just a few weeks time they'll be ready to migrate to West Africa with their parents. Good luck little ones!
How fascinating - where on earth is that nest situated, all I can see is sea!
ReplyDeleteWe have a blackbird nest a few feet from our back door in our pergola and the chicks look just about ready to leave - must try and prevent the dog from sitting underneath with his mouth open....
Rutland Water is one of the largest man made lakes in Europe and provides drinking water for a large population near where we are. The nest is situated over water in one of the lakes bays of the lake. We had drama yesterday after the youngest two fledged, her father attacked her thinking she was an interloper and had to go to the vets just hours after her maiden flight, poor thing. She was replaced in the nest by staff (via boat and ladders!) this morning. All is well again and her fauther is OK towards her when she's int he nest but we don't know when she'll make another flight after such a start! I hope he recognises her next time! Hope you manage to keep Clovis and your new fledglings separate! Nature can be cruel sometimes ... if they all survived we'd be overrun with blackbirds.
ReplyDeletePS They do still come back to the nest to be fed so they're there from time to time as I type now, both the young are in there (hope their lunch isn't this late!)
ReplyDeletethanks for this run-down - I have checked the webcam from time to time but didn't realise that they developed quite so quickly! I love Rutland Water and walk there a lot, even thinking about heading over this week.
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