Feeding Fledglings

 Day 6: Please forgive me adding too many baby photographs but Tuesdays in term-time are a baby-led day so we fit around and go-with-the-flow of the 14 month old. We get back from pre-school drop-off with an hour before any play group. Mummy has not eaten breakfast and Baby has only had one blueberry wafer out of a shiny packet as a bribe to get in the car seat. So the first thing we do at home is think of food.

 Baby goes to the window and points. He has been surrounded by blur of wonderful sights and sounds for most of his life but the new thing is that now he actually wants to point things out and talk about it. Usually he talks about trains "ch-ch-ch-ch" as he demolishes his brothers' train track which often has to be rebuilt by mummy before other children collected from school and pre-school. Today he talked about the wind in the trees "ssssss....ssss". Now he's at the window pointing. Something really good is happening....

 I go to the window and he is watching an adult Great Tit feed a beautiful newly grown fledgling. I'm concerned and surprised. We have Cuddles the rescued bird-eating cat. Quick scout to find her location. Luckily she's asleep in a warm place inside so I try and get a picture of the feeding...but too late the adult Great Tit flies off. I don't know where they nested. Our nestbox was quiet this year. If they had been in that I would have heard the chirps while gardening.

 The adults seem pretty hungry and go to our peanut feeder. Another concern...shouldn't we have emptied the nuts by now? The fledglings are pretty much full-sized and don't seem at risk of choking on the small bits of nut and caterpillars that the adults are feeding them it appears. Even so I will just change the feeder to sunflower hearts at the weekend.

 We can't wait until snack at playgroup so I whip up some plum baby porridge. As my own fledglings father is out of the way at work and not hovering anxiously with a wash cloth I decide to let him grab the spoon to self-feed and applaud the resulting wild mess

 Its pouring with rain now and all three kids are booked in to help our friends walk her dog at the woods after school. I will be too busy to blog later because I will be washing mud off boots and checking kids for ticks as they never fail to play den making in the long grass.

Will get my walk in though and a nice chat!