Every year we have Blue Tits nesting in the façade of our house. They squeeze between the stones and carve out little nest caves inside the thick walls.
Usually they successfully rear their young, and all fly off quite happily.
This year one small fledgling didn't make it, the poor thing flew into a window and his life came to a sudden end.
We gave him a decent burial and said how sorry we were, but there's really not much we can do about such tragedies.
RIP small nameless bird.
p.s. I'm afraid that Lady Magnon has just found a second dead baby Blue Tit. This time we suspect Freddie The Cat.
Oh dear!
28 comments:
Given that they have, on average, two broods of ten to twelve young per year....this is what tends to happen to some of them.
Cats are a problem....but, in the main, only catch the slowest and weakest....
Windows, however, have been a problem ever since we have had float glass....the reflections are too clear and they see just more open space....or big picture windows and doors have raptor stickers on them....this has cut down accidents noticeably.
That said, the adults come and catch insects from the surface of the glass... Arriving feet first with a thump that sounds just the same as an accidental collision!
They will also come and tease the cats through the window....hovering in front of the cat until it takes a swipe....this is repeated until either they get bored or the cat starts to ignore them even when they peck on the glass.
Also, they come and peck at the glass when the feeders need topping up!!
But mortality is Nature's way of making sure that not all of the foil tops on the milk bottles are pecked open...remember that?
They are such tiny little creatures against the big, bad, world.
Yes.
Yes I do remember the pecked milk bottle tops. I also remember the milk freezing and projecting about an inch from the bottle like a milk ice lolly.
We have a few quite big panes of glass on the front of the house, and have lost several birds to their allure. A few years ago we even found a dead Cuckoo.
He'd hardly left the safety of his nest.
Sad, ain't it.
Such a pretty little bird. How very sweet of you to give it a descent burial. You have a kind heart. Has Freddie The Cat a bell on its collar? Maybe not. I presume it could be dangerous for country cats to wear one; it could get hooked onto branches and fences and choke the poor cat?
Greetings Maria x
No he doesn't have a bell, or even a collar. Unfortunately he doesn't differentiate between mice and birds.
Oh how sad. In my former marital home we had house martins that nested under the eaves each year. I always looked forward to their return.x
Our house has perfect eaves for House Martins or Swallows, but they never nest here.
It's POURING here, with thunder, lightning, and black skies. I'm thinking 'mushrooms;.
Get yourself a sheet of the raptors...from the LPO...
Only a few euros....and cheaper than the British Trust for Ornithology are currently selling the same ones for....they go on the OUTSIDE....so the birds see a raptor silhouette in the "open space" they are aiming for....you see a nice coloured raptor in the sky from inside....
I wish it was here like that.
I also have big glass window that poor birds are trying to cross.
Gosh. Pecked milk bottle tops. That takes me back. Does anyone still have milk bottles?
We had a lovely day yesterday, today it's gone mad.
That is so sad. (I've had a stuffed goose standing on guard at our big window ever since a woodpecker crashed into it.)
I probably need several stuffed Geese, the barn has big plate windows too.
Poor little thing.
About 9.30 last night there was a massive CRAAACKKK.. and we lost a mature tree. No wind, nothing, but the whole rootball pulled straight out of the ground. No nests disturbed as far as I can see. But the life of a bird, like everything else I guess, is a perilous one.
We live in a heavily wooded area and often hear trees, or large branches, falling. It's dangerous out there!
It's a beautiful day here.
Poor baby. His life had barely started.
What a tiny bird. These fatalities are sad but happen. I like the idea of a raptor sheet to put on large windows.
Every spring I have to tie bunting across our kitchen window as we've had several birds fly into the glass and die. On another matter I've had a bit of a fall out with my neighbour today as he's started to cut down a tree between ours and his house - I know there's at least one nest in it!! Oh to have no neighbours would be heaven! !
I have huge windows facing north and I have birds hitting the windows because the blue sky is reflected on it.
It is so sad and I too say a prayer and a good bye.
cheers, parsnip and thehamish
I think the magpies are worse than the cats this way....broken empty shells around the field and yellow splodges! Sad!
That's a good story telling photograph, and even beautiful in a sad way. Poor little baby birds that don't get to grow very old and have some flying adventures. I grew up trying to shoo neighborhood stalking kitties away from young robins learning to fly in our back yard.
Just this weekend some bird flew into into one of the glass windows in my living room. I still can't quite believe it, since this window just faces other apartment across a not very big courtyard space.
Nature, eh?
Very sad.
So sad, we had to put the silhouette on our big window at our cabin as there was usually a dead bird on the deck every time we went up there. It did take care of it.
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