Blackbird Chick Day 15

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 15

Last night the chicks was left alone overnight by the female.

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 14 Stretch and Scratch

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 14 - External footage

Taken with my Canon S3IS - gives a much better perspective of the size of the chick compared to the nestcam video

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 14

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 13

The day of departure draws near . . .

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 12

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 11

The last chicks seems to be doing well. Wing stretching.

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 10

Checked first thing this morning and found that one of the two chicks and the egg had gone :( I assume it was not a rat since the nest I would have expected to be empty. Not sure whether it was a magpie (which were around early morning). Through the rest of the day feeding continued and I would have expected the Magpie to be back when the parents were both away from the nest ..... so not sure what happened. Hoping this one survives until it fledges. Just been a mare of a season for this female.
[UPDATE] Got home to find the 2nd chick dead on the ground near the nest. Shame, must have fallen out. I even wonder if I had checked early morning when I got up if it would have been alive and could have been put back in the nest. At least it wasn't a predator.

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 9

Blackbird Nest - 4th brood attempt - Day 8

Rat is dead . . .Blackbird chicks start to hatch (4th attempt at a brood) Day 1

Today was the day I had marked in my spreadsheet for the 3 eggs to start hatching (at this point the rat had still been around the garden but had not been up in the nest the past two weeks. Checked the nestcam this morning and the transformer had broken :( So went to the garden to check the nest after the parents had left for while and found the first chick had hatched. I then noticed that the rat was dead on the lawn! Such a relief - the chicks have a chance. No idea what had killed the rat. I hadn't put poison out only traps, so maybe a cat got it. Assuming no other rat family members, the chicks (3 eggs) have a chance this time of making it through the next two weeks. Went and got a new transformer from Maplin, so up and running on the nestcam again and this is Day 1 for the first chick! :) .... well pleased. Other recordings will probably start from Day 8 (from where the previous brood finished).