I was in the bathroom this morning, when a moevement outside caught my eye…. a female blackbird disappearing into the hedge right outside the bathroom window. Looking more closely, I could see that she was building a nest…. only a couple of metres from last year’s nest that was raided by magpies. It is also only a metre or so from where I have mousecam, so I knew I potentially had a cable from close by, back to my office. I have one camera, from HandyKam, that I had been ‘saving’ for a potential nest site, so I quickly rigged it up in a protective case (tupperware container!) and waited for the blackbird to leave. As soon as she did, I quickly tied the container in place, positioned the camera and nipped back inside. Within a second, she was back…. seemed unaware of the tupperware container, camera and wires that had suddenly appeared and carried on her business…. wonderful!
She has been in and out all day, beaks full of dried grass and hay. She positions it in the bottom of the nest and then wiggles round and round, ‘paddling’ with her legs, pressing and flattening the materials to form the cup of the nest… fascinating to watch. I am not over confident about how safe this nest is…. it is just above my cat flap…. and also the magpies raided three blackbird nests in this hedge last year. They sit in the field and watch for where the adults go in and out. We’ll watch and see what happens. I will have this camera on live stream at points during the day… there is so much going on in the garden at the moment, I am finding it difficult to decide which camera to put on!
Here are a few screen shots from i-catcher today. I will see if I can upload some video footage from the lives stream at some point for those who missed it during the day.
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