Our Garden Birds

[peony]

May 3, 2012 16:20:14 GMT Cherry said:

The Golden Oriele has been spotted in Swaffham which is quite close to here.

The Norfolk cuckoos are arriving back home, but my own cuckoo is not here yet.

I've just had a look at a picture of it Cherry, its a beautiful bird

[derekbrooks]

The water butt on my greenhouse has a wooden cover and an old curtain which hangs over it to stop leaves going in.This morning I saw a blackbirds egg on top of it. I couldn't understand it.Why should a blackbird lay an egg there ?.There is a high hawthorn hedge at the back but there is no nest there that the egg could have fallen out of.Also if if it had fallen out of a nest ,surely it would have broken so I am very puzzled.

[derekbrooks]

Blackbird's egg on top of water butt

[Cherry]

That is a real mystery Derek.

[derekbrooks]

Before I went to school this afternoon I watered the plants in the greenhouses and guess what I found.--a blackbird sat on a nest on a greenhouse shelf.I watered it as it was sat on the nest !Presumably it would be the same bird that laid the egg on the water butt. Later in the afternoon it came off the nest and there were three eggs in it. They lay one egg each day so it must have been there for at least three days and I hadn't seen it before.I watered the same shelf yesterday so the bird mustn't have been on then or I would have seen it.I have been closing the greenhouse door at night so I must have shut it in.I had better start leaving it open in case it wants to get out unless it becomes frosty.There are a lot of boxes of bedding plants and dahlias in this greenhouse which will soon need to go into frames so I just hope it won't desert with me keep going in and out

[derekbrooks]

Blackbird on nest on greenhouse shelf

[Cherry]

That is just beautiful Derek. It seemed to cope when the door was closed, but it would be happier if it was a little ajar. I think it will be used to you.

I have a neat nest in the railway carriage. There are no eggs, but the nest is new. It is in a small pot which is on its side in a garden tray.

[grindle]

how nice to have such company in the greenhouse

[peony]

Lovely photograph Derek I hope she stays.

[esther]

Derek - that is lovely - I hope she stays ;D

[SueA]

She must have decided it was safer in their Derek with you watching over her than in the ivy where she lost her eggs!

[derekbrooks]

There are four eggs now.The weather has gone colder and a frost was forecast .I had to decide whether to close the greenhouse door as I have been doing before I found the nest or to leave it open then the bird can get out.I decided to just leave a gap but I hope the frost keeps out .

[derekbrooks]

On April 19th I told you that this was the first year for many years that we hadn't got great tits nesting in our nest box.
Believe it or not they started building yesterday. They normally start in the middle of April.I thought that they had perhaps raised another brood somewhere else first and this was their second.
There has hardly been time though because to raise a brood takes at least a month so perhaps they have had an unsuccessful attempt somewhere.

[SueA]

May 3, 2012 19:57:45 GMT derekbrooks said:

Blackbird's egg on top of water butt

Derek, do you think that maybe could have been a starling egg? I was reading somewhere the other day that starlings sometimes lay a spare egg in another starling's nest like a cuckoo & if they can't find a nest in time they just lay it on the ground & also do the same (lay on the grass etc) if they're ready to lay & their own nest isn't ready or has been disturbed or taken over. I'd never heard of that before.

[derekbrooks]

I have only just seen this note that you have written,Sue about starlings.I have never read that but it was definately a blackbirds egg.
The blackbirds eggs in the greenhouse were hatching today.There were three chicks and one egg.Perhaps the other egg will hatch tomorrow.