The two photos above from our TrailCam show 'Star', the partially-leucistic female Blackbird, caught on camera. She is nearly always the star of our garden show as there must be particularly juicy worms in this corner of the garden! The orange arrow in the top photo shows the distinguishing mark that led to her 'name'.
The two photos below show her mate, 'Mr Star', taken on different days, but with a bill full of food on each occasion.
The Blackbirds seemed to be foraging nearly all the time, and we began to have a hunch that there was almost certainly a 'Star Junior'. We became a bit fearful for the fledgling when the camera showed photos of potential predators in the form of the visiting cat and magpie you see below.
The foragaing continued apace, which we took to be a good sign. The adult male Blackbird kept his distance, often standing sentinel on top of a fir tree, but Star would wander round the grassy paths and come within a metre of us if we were sitting on the patio.
It seems the frantic hunt for food continued on into the night. The photo above, taken at 03.16 hrs yesterday morning, seems to show a Blackbird bill looking up at something in the air.
We have at last been 'introduced' to Star Junior, a single sleek and healthy-looking semi-fledgling. We have watched mother and young hopping in tandem round the grassy paths. We have seen Star's offspring fly into a low branch and we have watched it 'flop', with feathers all spread out, on the decking. Each day, and almost each hour, brings more independence. I did not like to disturb the 'new arrival' by clicking my camera (which always 'pings' when switched on) while it was spreadeagled in the sunshine, but I hope soon to be able to post a photograph, providing the latest bird on the block stays around a little longer.
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