fledging day

all the young blackbirds flew the nest this morning except this tail end Charlie (Charlene I think). It may well be the bird rescued earlier in the week.

After we checked all was well, it eventually left the nest this evening. It has had quite an eventful start to its life.

Martinot line update

So far so good. After some hesitation, the martins have completed one nest and are well on the way to finishing the second nest. It sounds as if a martin is sitting in the nest on the right. The pesky (but much loved and well fed) sparrows have not tried to take over the nest or intimidate the martins yet, but we may have to risk life and limb to extend the Martinot line along to the corner of the eaves because as history shows the enemy can always go round the the undefended corner at the top.

sparrow fence

It turns out that sparrows are well know for bullying martins. On the advice of the RSPB (see link) we have made a sparrow barrier out of odds and ends. We shall watch developments with interest.

Spot is in the building

Oh to be outside when the sun is shining!

(large paintings by Dianne Nevitt see link, small pictures by Mary Stork ..it is worth googling Mary Stork images for more)

mission control

Spot has also been quite taken by all the interesting interiors on other blogs so he would like to show you where he spends a lot of his time working on his blog. The painting on the right is by Rose Hilton, and the pastel on the left is by Bryan Pearce, two very interesting artists although for very different reasons. Poor Bryan is dead now but his work is going to live on for a very long time. Spot, of course, enjoys looking at himself.