Have I scared mamma bird away ?

cymruchris

cymruchris

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Chris
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There’s a wisteria monster in the garden, and with the house being for sale, and it shooting in all directions like it does every year, I got the ladder out and started to give it a trim. Suddenly spotted this - and stopped immediately. (Anyone know what chicks they might be?) hoping i haven’t scared off mamma bird with my pruning !

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Depending on nest size I would guess at a Blackbird.

Your best and only action is keep your distance and wait.......... keeping eye on the area for any comings & goings.

Hopefully the adults will return and all will be well :thinking: (y)
 
Box Brownie said:
Depending on nest size I would guess at a Blackbird.

Your best and only action is keep your distance and wait.......... keeping eye on the area for any comings & goings.

Hopefully the adults will return and all will be well :thinking: (y)
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I’d probably hazard a guess of about 8-10 inches wide from outer edge to outer edge. The garden does have its fair share of blackbirds - that was my initial thought, and they were active in the garden as usual after I’d come back into the house - so fingers crossed they’ll go back, and I’ll stay well away. The wisteria can go as crazy as it wants for a couple of weeks !
 
cymruchris said:
I’d probably hazard a guess of about 8-10 inches wide from outer edge to outer edge. The garden does have its fair share of blackbirds - that was my initial thought, and they were active in the garden as usual after I’d come back into the house - so fingers crossed they’ll go back, and I’ll stay well away. The wisteria can go as crazy as it wants for a couple of weeks !
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In my limited knowledge that size does indeed suggest Blackbird. Hopefully will survive.

PS the situation you found is one reason the plea (?) from the likes of RSPB and BTO is to leave hedges and dense shrubbery untouched in the nesting season.
 
Box Brownie said:
In my limited knowledge that size does indeed suggest Blackbird. Hopefully will survive.

PS the situation you found is one reason the plea (?) from the likes of RSPB and BTO is to leave hedges and dense shrubbery untouched in the nesting season.
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To be fair the garden probably has a load of other better nesting places for a blackbird aside from the top of a wobbly wisteria that's falling away from the fence. It's mostly a very bird friendly garden, with feeders, water, a little waterfall and more. There's 3 birdboxes (Too smallf or a blackbird I know!), a mini-apple tree, a gigantic something or other tree (I'm not a gardener!), lots of green conifer thingys that grow from the ground up with intertwined branches everywhere in a 2 m square enclosed fenced off area - if it is blackbirds they're always in there! I've been cutting the wisteria back for a couple of years now - that was probably the last place I'd have expected the nest to be in this garden! I've got a PTZ camera mounted on the garage, so that's been trained on the Wisteria so I can see if anything is coming and going in the morning without having to go poking around it again. As you say fingers crossed Mamma will return.
 
cymruchris said:
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Definitely a blackbird - I’ve been watching her fly in and out, and most definitely still around! There’s always something to see in the garden isn’t there ?
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Thanks for the update.....................fingers crossed for a successful brood & fledging :D
 
It should be fine and especially now you've seen her going to the nest. Parent birds can take some spooking when it comes to young. As long as the nest isn't exposed now and it is supporting itself in the tree, all should be good.

A few years ago, there was a Blackbird nesting in some conifers in a garden nearby. They can be easy pickings for Magpies and I heard the Bb alarm call one afternoon. I didn't take too much notice as it's something I hear here all the time. My dog was asking to go out the garden though, so I let here out and that's when I heard the Magpies and I knew what was happening. The trees were shaking with the commotion and I witnessed a Magpie carry a Bb chick away. All the time, the Bbs were attacking the Magpies.

It was brutal but the remaining chicks fledged not long after, I saw them on our lawn, a total of 3, so the parents weren't put off.

My recommendation would be to avoid cutting or pruning dense trees, shrubs etc during the breeding season.
 
It's what the Wildlife & Countryside act says... Albeit for farm hedges... Doesn't apply to domestic hedges & shrubs but it's a reasonable first shot at dos & don'ts
 
I was cleaning out the gutters on my shed this afternoon when I found a nest on top of the down pipe at the back of the building and it had birds in it. The nest had been made when the weather was dry but we've had rain recently and the water has been running through the nest and it was soaked. Trying to be as careful as possible, I disconnected all the gutter supplying the downpipe, tie-wrapping them up out of the way so the rain ran away from the nest. While I was doing this, dad blackbird came back and sat with the chicks while I carried out the modifications, giving me the evil eye. I finished as quickly as I could and left them to it, comforted with the knowledge that they wouldn't get wet again if it rained. I'd like to have another look to make sure mum and dad came back again but I have to leave them alone now and hope for the best.

The moral of this story? Birds are not frightened away so easily, they have invested a lot in their broods and won't leave them because of a short-term disturbance.
 
ShinySideUp said:
I was cleaning out the gutters on my shed this afternoon when I found a nest on top of the down pipe at the back of the building and it had birds in it. The nest had been made when the weather was dry but we've had rain recently and the water has been running through the nest and it was soaked. Trying to be as careful as possible, I disconnected all the gutter supplying the downpipe, tie-wrapping them up out of the way so the rain ran away from the nest. While I was doing this, dad blackbird came back and sat with the chicks while I carried out the modifications, giving me the evil eye. I finished as quickly as I could and left them to it, comforted with the knowledge that they wouldn't get wet again if it rained. I'd like to have another look to make sure mum and dad came back again but I have to leave them alone now and hope for the best.

The moral of this story? Birds are not frightened away so easily, they have invested a lot in their broods and won't leave them because of a short-term disturbance.
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Good on you for the attention & support for the brood......fingers crossed for a good outcome (y)
 
Box Brownie said:
Good on you for the attention & support for the brood......fingers crossed for a good outcome (y)
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We do try, we are very wildlife friendly in our garden but I'm sad to report that this year, the first in 20 years, we have had no evidence of hedgehogs, none at all.
 
ShinySideUp said:
I was cleaning out the gutters on my shed this afternoon when I found a nest on top of the down pipe at the back of the building and it had birds in it. The nest had been made when the weather was dry but we've had rain recently and the water has been running through the nest and it was soaked. Trying to be as careful as possible, I disconnected all the gutter supplying the downpipe, tie-wrapping them up out of the way so the rain ran away from the nest. While I was doing this, dad blackbird came back and sat with the chicks while I carried out the modifications, giving me the evil eye. I finished as quickly as I could and left them to it, comforted with the knowledge that they wouldn't get wet again if it rained. I'd like to have another look to make sure mum and dad came back again but I have to leave them alone now and hope for the best.

The moral of this story? Birds are not frightened away so easily, they have invested a lot in their broods and won't leave them because of a short-term disturbance.
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Further to the above post, the blackbirds have fledged so I have removed the nest and put my guttering back to the purpose of collecting water. I shall change the place where they were to prevent nesting in that position again as they were lucky it was a dry summer; as it was the nest was pretty damp and couldn't have been very pleasant for the chicks.
 
ShinySideUp said:
Further to the above post, the blackbirds have fledged so I have removed the nest and put my guttering back to the purpose of collecting water. I shall change the place where they were to prevent nesting in that position again as they were lucky it was a dry summer; as it was the nest was pretty damp and couldn't have been very pleasant for the chicks.
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Thanks for the update (y)
 
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