[Animals] Young country diary: Holding out for the blackbirds, Steve and Stevetta

[Amaterasu イタチ]

 

Our garden is a tiny patch of green in the urban landscape around. Most gardens up and down our street are paved and walled, an uninviting sight for any wildlife. But wildlife does come to us. The thick ivy hedge at the bottom of our garden is home to two feathered visitors every year. The blackbirds, who we have named Steve and Stevetta, arrive in early spring to gorge on fallen crab apples and start nest-building. Using the “wattle and daub” method, they weave grass into a rough bowl and plaster it with mud. It takes around two weeks to build and the result is an unusually solid nest. After a while we hear chirps and cheeping and know that the chicks have hatched. Then the parents are a constant sight, darting in and out of the hedge.This year we found an old nest; it astonished me that an animal that’s so small with no hands could make anything so intricate and beautiful. It was plastered with dirty leaves and mud but each piece of grass was carefully tucked in and nothing was random or out of place.

Mabel’s drawing of blackbird and nest.
Mabel’s drawing of blackbird and nest
This spring in the garden there have been frogs and newts in our pond, and we have just heard the first swifts screaming above the chimney pots. We have seen Steve and Stevetta since the start of April, fluttering around the hedge. They haven’t built a nest yet, but I hope that they will continue to come, and that our tiny terrace garden can be a reliable habitat for them every year.
Mabel, 12 Our garden is a tiny patch of green in the urban landscape around. Most gardens up and down our street are paved and walled, an uninviting sight for any wildlife. But wildlife does come to us. The thick ivy hedge at the bottom of our garden is home to two feathered visitors every year. The blackbirds, who we have named Steve and Stevetta, arrive in early spring to gorge on fallen crab apples and start nest-building. Using the “wattle and daub” method, they weave grass into a rough bowl and plaster it with mud. It takes around two weeks to build and the result is an unusually solid nest. After a while we hear chirps and cheeping and know that the chicks have hatched. Then the parents are a constant sight, darting in and out of the hedge.This year we found an old nest; it astonished me that an animal that’s so small with no hands could make anything so intricate and beautiful. It was plastered with dirty leaves and mud but each piece of grass was carefully tucked in and nothing was random or out of place.

Mabel’s drawing of blackbird and nest.
Mabel’s drawing of blackbird and nest
This spring in the garden there have been frogs and newts in our pond, and we have just heard the first swifts screaming above the chimney pots. We have seen Steve and Stevetta since the start of April, fluttering around the hedge. They haven’t built a nest yet, but I hope that they will continue to come, and that our tiny terrace garden can be a reliable habitat for them every year.
 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/20/young-country-diary-holding-out-for-the-blackbirds-steve-and-stevetta