Posts that Didn't Happen 2: You Looking At Us?

Brood 2 as at 27 July - ready to fly . . . and they did, off camera, in private, the very next day.

Another Log Store, Another Nest

Our local pied wagtail population seem to have a real thing for log stores . . .

A couple of weeks after brood 1 left the nest (which was neatly positioned behind the log store by the house) we found a second nest, neatly positioned at the back of the log store at the bottom of the garden (where we dried the onions last year).

Here's the latest (slightly out of focus) view of the newly-hatched chicks.

Empty Nest!

Just in case anyone was wondering by Tuesday (16 June) the birds had flown.

Missed the excitement unfortunately. No sign yet of the parents returning to start family no. 2, but I guess they are probably still feeding the fledglings at the moment - so if anyone is interested we have one nest, with vacant possession, available now:

Time to Leave the Nest?

Can't be long now - as of yesterday they were looking pretty grown up:

It's getting a bit crowded in here . . .

They are proper little birds now (baby feathers nearly all gone, and you can see a pied-wagtailish tail on its way). I guess they'll be leaving the nest before long, and just hope that number 5 is alive and well under there somewhere . . .

Growing Up . . .

The chicks are beginning to look like proper little birds now, with feathers and everything . . .

Gobwatch!

Took the opportunity for another quick snap of the chicks - on hearing the camera mechanism on the first shot, lots of little beaks opened wide . . .


At least they are acquiring some feathers now, and looking a little cuter!

Chickwatch!

That's the feathered kind of chick - although they don't have many feathers at the moment!

We've gone from 5 eggs to 5 chicks - they're rather ugly scraps of birdlife at the moment, but I guess they'll look a bit cuter in due course:

Nestwatch

Mama (or indeed Papa as I gather they take turns to nest-sit) was away from the nest briefly yesterday and I took the opportunity to have a quick peek:

We're up from the 3 and 4 eggs we first observed in mid-May to 5 - so presuming the information I've found on incubation period is accurate (12-14 days) they should be hatching any time now.

Watch this space!

Springwatch

In homage to BBC's Springwatch, here's our very own selection of wildlife offerings.

Firstly, the baby Sparrows - doing their Feed Me, Feed Me Now thing . . .



. . . much fluffing of feathers, fluttering of wings, and frenzied cheeping . . .






. . . the adult pictured here is evidently gleaning scraps from the fat balls to keep the little ones quiet.






On a more horticultural note, the hedgerows roundabout are studded with these little white stars at the moment - an online search identifies it as Lesser Stitchwort, unless anybody knows any differently?



Finally, we have our very own nesting Pied Wagtails. They have positioned their nest somewhat awkwardly, right behind our log store (so the logs are off limits right now) but seem quite happy despite our comings and goings. No sign of any chicks just yet, but there is some serious nest-sitting going on.

Hopefully more photos to follow: