Sunday 31 May 2020

Time to Leave the Nest

Though we are in many countries still advised to stay at home as much as possible, the same is not true for young birds.

Today on our #DailyExercise walk round the local cemeteries we saw an amazing number of fledgling birds, including robins, blackcaps and chiffchaffs. We also saw an adorable family of long tailed tits which allowed Crafty Green Boyfriend to take their photos with the zoom lens on his camera - the second photo below shows an adult with one of the chicks. .

In the other cemetery, the young great spotted woodpecker hasn't yet fledged, but surely must do any day soon

We also saw a grey squirrel collecting leafy twigs and taking them to what must be its drey (nest)

The squirrel collected about ten twigs in the short time we were watching. Apparently (according to this page on Wikipedia) dreys begin as a collection of small, gnawed-off branches bearing green leaves. The leaves adhere tightly throughout the winter. A finished drey is a hollow sphere, woven from branches on the outside and lined with finer materials, such as grass and moss.

for Nature Notes and My Corner of the World 

13 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Adorable birds and photos! Enjoy your day, have a great new week ahead!

Lydia C. Lee said...

I love the woodpecker in the hole!!

betty-NZ said...

CG Boyfriend captured them so well! I enjoy seeing these little critters that are almost ready to fly, thanks for sharing.

Your link is a great addition to 'My Corner of the World' this week!

Podo said...

Excellent pics, and thanks for the squirrel nest info.

RG said...

A squirrel nest can be quite large?

Our chickadee family "flew the coop" about 4 days ago!!

Crafty Green Poet said...

Thanks Eileen

Thanks Lydia, we love that young woodpecker too!

Betty - thanks, i look forward to vsiting all the other links in My Corner of the World too

Podo - you're welcome

Rabbits Guy - yes squirrel nests can be pretty large, messy too. I hope your chickadees grow up nicely!

Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax! said...

Although there are trees outside my house, there has only once been a squirrel. There are crows in a nest though and they are still collecting twigs to improve or repair their nests. I've noticed that they seem to be trying to break dead twigs from the branches. I had previously assumed they picked up only ready-fallen ones.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Hi Lucy, yes that's something I've recently learned too! I had always thought that crows and squirrels would gather fallen twigs.

Karen said...

I love to see all the spring babies emerging from their nests!

Monika Ohson | TravelerInMe said...

You were really blessed to be able to spot the feathered beauties before they flew away. Its wonderful to see and know about different birds from different places.

My potted plants have been a victim of these nesting squirrels and it really saddens me as the plant grown with so much care is literally killed by these friskies and Mynahs. I still love the happy-go-lucky attitude of their :)

Lowcarb team member said...

So good to see all of your photographs here, thank you.

All the best Jan

Linda aka Crafty Gardener said...

such cute little birds, lovely photos

Rambling Woods said...

Such a dangerous time for baby birds ...