This time of the year, maybe a few weeks later than Southern England we start to see those birds that were feeding their young in the nest from a couple of post’s ago, actually introduce the fledged youngsters to our bird café.
I have tried to capture a few of the new arrivals to show you here, but some are tending to be a bit allusive when I get the camera out, I had hoped to put the new hide up to capture them, but the weather over the last week has either been a bit blowy or rain showers up to chucking it down in a gale force wind. So have attached the few youngsters I have captured in between the weather.
Before the fledglings though I must show you a capture from a week or so ago. SWMBO said there was a bird of prey or Cuckoo on the power cables in the field in front of the house, looked through the bino’s & was still not certain, so of course out came the camera with the big lens & on the tripod. I managed to sneak into the field & get a little closer than from the garden, even so it was still 100yds away. I can confirm it is a Cuckoo, my first really decent capture of one, so well chuffed.
So what follows are the youngsters that I have had in the garden, still to get caught through my lens are , the family of House Sparrows, that live on the front lawn, well until the camera comes out they do. The Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, of which I think we have 3 babes, two males & a female. The very small but adorable Red Squirrel, which is really independent, but so small you feel it should still be at home keeping warm.
This baby Robin, is so tame, I am trying to get it to eat out of my hand & is only inches of of doing so. I wont include the photos I have of it’s left eye as it has not been very pleasant, some experts I have asked seem to think it had picked up a tick near to it’s eye & had scratched it off, causing swelling & temporary blindness in that eye. It is slowly recovering, but whether that scratching caught a nerve because as you can see from the shot, most of the time it’s beak is open, though it does close when it is eating something. we have talked with it every day & now when I get the mealworms out in the mornings, it is the first to the feeder & as I said, virtually eating out of my hand, I am sure I will succeed in accomplishing this. As you can see he is also not very upright for a Robin, as is illustrated in the next shot of a Robin of about the same age, might even be it’s sibling.
A Greenfinch looking about the same as an adult now, this one is a member of a family of 4 & though it is now eating independently it still pesters the parents for extras that they get for them. It is good to see this family as Greenies have had a hard time along with other finches, getting a type of canker, that causes their mouths to get covered in a mucus film which eventually stops them from eating & they die.
Another member of the Finch family the Chaffinch, again a good size but feathers that are so pristine it looks like it has just been pampered with a shampoo & wash.
The best I can get (so far) of one of the baby House Sparrows screaming at it’s mother, just out of shot, that was about to feed it, but had spotted me. Of course the babe just had eyes for the food & totally ignored the mothers warning calls that I was around.
A baby Great Tit one of many, maybe a family of 5 or 6 , I would like to think they are the ones from the nest box at the top of the garden that I photographed being fed in the box, but not sure as I never am up early enough to see them fledge.
A couple of maybe 6 baby Blue Tits in the garden at present, they also are feeding by their selves, with supplements from both parents. It was mainly for the Tits that I started breeding the Mealworms, but I have yet to see one of them feed on them, which has been a surprise when you see the size of the Caterpillars they were feeding the young in the nest box.
Lastly a shot of one of the parent Blue Tits, after all this hectic feeding of the young, they look so tatty & worn out, such dedication pays a price on these small little birds & to think some of them go onto have another brood. A feeling that all parents of newborns feel I know.