This season we seem to have had more fledglings than ever with several broods from the BT & GT birds. With live mealworms and camera at the ready, here are some photos.
With being slightly earlier breeders a lot of the Great tit fledglings are now independent although some still demand being fed by their parents; here is a young Blue Tit who's not quite got the hang of helping itself to the mealies …………… waiting by the dish for anyone to feed it LOL
"Are you going to feed me" ????? ……………..
Nope ! probably not its parent so little BT's hunger went unsatisfied ………...
poor little BT ;(
"Are you going to feed me Mr Robin" ????
Nope ! so little BT went to inspect the dish itself …………….
"What do I do" ……….."how do I catch a worm" ??? "can someone help me out here" ????
"Momma ! ………… is that you ? " …………………..
"GIMME ...…..GIMME...…...GIMME "
"Thanks Momma" :)
Another mouth demanding food !! ………………..
"Momma ……. Poppa" ……………….
and another young bluey being fed on the trellis …………..
Now the Great Tit juveniles were begging for food ………………. despite most being independent now …..
"I'm sure I can hear termites in here " !!! ………………..
meanwhile yet another GT juvenile was being fed nearby ………….
"POPPA ………..MOMMA ………… don't forget ne " ……………………..
"Come back with that mealie" !! ……………………….
and this little Blue Tit just looked on bemused at all the activity ……………………...
Unknown said:Yep, Mike, I know it is nature--they all must eat or die and I was rather involved myself many years ago. I've had to hand over a few of my hand-fed pet chickens to my Dad so he could turn them into dinners. Got up out of my sick bed one time just to say goodbye to two of my pets! But I've become soppier in my old age, possibly partly due to being a city girl, distantly removed from my farm past for the past many decades!
It can be hard at times to see it happen, I fully appreciate it.
There's no harm in being soppy, it shows you have feelings.
As someone who has worked on farms as a teenager back in the 70's, many of the farmers I worked for were soft enough themselves, but many realised what was necessary and the days routine carried on.
Those were good old days, proper farms, not these large industrial style farms today, the old cow byre (the old herringbone milking parlours were only just becoming the thing to dream of), milk churns and no sealed systems and hens that were free range. Heaven knows how many of them never got knocked down when driving a tractor through the yard....
And the proper old Aga, that was kept alight 24/7, never over heating the cottage in summer but always kept it comfortably warm in winter.
Now I'm getting soft.