John Coldebella confesses to a love/hate relationship with the birds that share his garden. Photos by Pauline Wilkinson
By John Coldebella
MOST gardeners are familiar with blackbirds, especially at this time of year when thoughts turn to the netting of fruit trees and berry bushes. In between eating crops, they keep busy digging up seedlings or burying them as they forage for worms and insects. In recent years their impact on fruit such as apples and pears has been dwarfed by the industrial scale damage caused by the flocks of parrots and their relatives that have discovered our region. Even so, the blackbird is still capable of inducing a summer of expletives.
Having said that, they also exude a certain charm. To me, their song, particularly in the evening is entertaining and comforting. I also find the young ones to be very cute. Just after leaving the nest, with their feathers still growing, almost looking like they've been to the barber for a trim around the collar, and only able to awkwardly fly short distances, they are naive, innocent, curious and impressionable.
MOST gardeners are familiar with blackbirds, especially at this time of year when thoughts turn to the netting of fruit trees and berry bushes. In between eating crops, they keep busy digging up seedlings or burying them as they forage for worms and insects. In recent years their impact on fruit such as apples and pears has been dwarfed by the industrial scale damage caused by the flocks of parrots and their relatives that have discovered our region. Even so, the blackbird is still capable of inducing a summer of expletives.
Having said that, they also exude a certain charm. To me, their song, particularly in the evening is entertaining and comforting. I also find the young ones to be very cute. Just after leaving the nest, with their feathers still growing, almost looking like they've been to the barber for a trim around the collar, and only able to awkwardly fly short distances, they are naive, innocent, curious and impressionable.
Fledgling blackbird I recently encountered one on a low branch of a tree. It looked at me but didn't fly away. It seemed to be contemplating life outside the nest. I said hello and kept on with what I was doing. I saw it again several times over the next few days and repeated my greeting, being careful not to make any sudden moves in its direction.
Last week I went to pick some raspberries. What I presume was the same fledgling was sitting there having a feed. It turned and looked at me as if to say “Do you know about these berries too? Aren't they delicious!” and continued to eat. I got within a metre of it before it moved, but not out of the raspberry patch. An older bird with experience of humans and cats would have been gone before I knew it was there.
Some years ago a blackbird decided to offer her young the opportunity to work from home by nesting in a redcurrant bush. I discovered the nest just after the chicks had hatched. There was a bunch of currants dangling inside the nest. I said hello every day as they grew. Over time, the nest began to tilt under their weight on the bending branches of the bush and one of them had to sit on the rim to stop it from tipping over.
Last week I went to pick some raspberries. What I presume was the same fledgling was sitting there having a feed. It turned and looked at me as if to say “Do you know about these berries too? Aren't they delicious!” and continued to eat. I got within a metre of it before it moved, but not out of the raspberry patch. An older bird with experience of humans and cats would have been gone before I knew it was there.
Some years ago a blackbird decided to offer her young the opportunity to work from home by nesting in a redcurrant bush. I discovered the nest just after the chicks had hatched. There was a bunch of currants dangling inside the nest. I said hello every day as they grew. Over time, the nest began to tilt under their weight on the bending branches of the bush and one of them had to sit on the rim to stop it from tipping over.
All mouth ... a clutch of babies almost ready to leave the nest One day after they had left the nest, I was standing there with a handful of red currants. Two metres away, one of the fledglings was sitting on a star picket, looking at me. Its mother was in a tree above us screaming warnings to its child. I held out my hand and after a few seconds, the young bird flew over and landed on it, and ate a couple of berries before either instinct or its mother's warnings kicked in and it flew away- but not too far.
It made my day and I imagined the mother was saying, “wait till I get you home!”
I have no doubt that by the end of summer, I would have cursed that same bird many times.
It made my day and I imagined the mother was saying, “wait till I get you home!”
I have no doubt that by the end of summer, I would have cursed that same bird many times.
Male blackbird