Saint-Joseph

Ex-neighbours

The four blackbird younglings that hatched not even two weeks ago are now gone! I am amazed at how fast they turned into birds. Of course, Pierre, Robin and I evoked the alternative hypothesis that the fours of them fell from the nest, but could not find evidence on the ground two stories below. Maybe the nest will get recycled next year,  by a blackbird or by another species, if no one at CREST decides first it is a fire hazard and takes it away!

New neighbours [older]

Within a week of so, our blackbird chick neighbours at CREST have grown quite a lot and now show the distinctive feathers of the young, as well as open eyes. (I know, the quality of the picture is terrible, blame the window pane!)

New neighbours

Next to my office in Crest, a blackbird built a nest a few weeks ago and the four chicks were born over the  previous weekend! Here they are, in a poor quality picture due partly to the window pane between the nest and the corridor and partly to my lack of skill.

The mother keeps feeding the chicks, but seems disrupted by any passerby it sees in the corridor… presumably obeying an atavistic rule to keep away from the nest while there are potential predators around. If it finds enough food around, and does not die from stress, the chicks should grow up very fast to young adults!

(Three bird-related posts in a row, maybe I should start a new category!)