Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Peter
Goldfinch babies have fledged this afternoon. Seven hungry beaks now competing for the bird feeders so 5 must have hatched and survived. Not bad going.
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Lovely. A few years ago I notice a blackbird nesting in our garden hedge and decided to run a golfball sized CCTV camera to it so we could record and view the footage of the eggs hatching etc. It was fascinating to watch and in the end 4 chicks hatched but sadly they started to disappear. Normally predators like magpies and squirrels would take the whole lot so we knew something odd was happening and after reviewing lots of footage we discovered that a male was taking the nestlings out of the nest and dumping them.
On another occasion I discovered some wrens had nested in the same hedge when I heard the feint call of several young birds coming from it one afternoon. I went to have a look and could hear them but not see anything at first. Then, with my head buried in the thick hedge, I spotted these tiny fledglings amongst all the woody stems and the male adult started creating a right old fuss trying to frighten me away. He was only about the size of my little finger but very feisty!!
