Pair of blackbirds are very busy building a nest in the small Christmas tree in a pot which is outside on my small patio. Now - do you think I'll need to sacrifice the tre - would even careful watering scare them off? Also I am about to get a hexagonal greenhouse thing assembled with a wooden base very close to where they are - again - is this likely to frighten them off?
I'm very very keen to encourage the blackbirds because I live on a new development - acres of red brick, most "gardens" are paved and there is little in the way of plant life except for mine in which I have built deep raise dbeds for veg, fruit, flowers.
So- will I get my greenhouse made AND keep the birds happy?
They should be ok. I've had blackbirds nesting in either my garden (few years ago) or the neighbour's garden when they must have moved there cos they prefered it more. The last three years they built within a quite tangled and uncared for climbing rose, or rather between the rose and a window ledge that it covered. Last spring and early summer I had cock blackbird following me (at a respectful distance) along the garden path when I was planting and as I turned up worms from the soil, I threw a couple for him on the path which he snatched up immediately. He didn't fly back to the nest with one worm either but waited for a couple more till his beak was stuffed full of them - and then came straight back. I used to do my best chirruping noise whilst he was there waiting and he used to cock his head to one side and listen. After a few occasions such as this, a chirruping from me used to bring him straight out of wherever he stationed himself and onto the path to wait for worms and grubs. I could hear the chicks cheeping incessantly and the older they got (and so more demanding), the bolder daddy blackbird seemed to become. Eventually he came to just out of arms reach and used to wait there patiently.
Last winter the old lady next door had her son round one weekend to do some diy and tidying for her and if he didn't go in the garden and hack away at the rose - too much in my view though it's growing again. But he cut away all the tangled growth and exposed the window ledge and removed the old nest and I thought - 'that's it now, they won't come back, the position is now too exposed (cats and all that)'
About 3 weeks ago, I started seeing cock blackbird again. I've seen him early morning stood on what is to be the brassica patch this year, listening carefully for worms in the wet soil. I haven't been out to have chats and worm offerings with him yet. But I wondered where him and the missus are stationed cos the old site on the window ledge next door hasn't been rebuilt - it's definitely too exposed. I stacked some timbers up against the boundary wall at the house end of my garden this winter, including a couple of old roof purlings that I had earmarked as possible raised bed edgings for the allotment. I was pottering about last weekend (well actually sowing a row of peas and tying in some broad beans) and suddenly I noticed the nest on top of these two purlings, neatly built against the wall with the base resting on the timbers. It's a good spot and impregnable to cats. Guess I cant use the timbers on the plot after all as I daren't remove them now. I saw Mummy blackbird sitting on the nest t'other day or rather I can just see her beak peeping out. Daddy blackbird is out and about every day now, though isn't too bold yet - they'll still be eggs yet rather than chicks.
Yes they are quite tame as far as wild birds go and don't seem to mind man too much as long as you don't try to interfere. They don't have anything on robins though. My mate has noticed a robin's nest built in an old nut-and-bolt box on a shelf in his shed, really low down and right near the doorway. He's in and out of there several times a day and is continually sawing firewood on a circular saw - vast screeching noise of the blade through the wood - you know how loud power saws are. The robins don't seem to mind he says and mummy robin sits there whilst he's sawing away. I went up on wednesday night with some wood for him and three of us were barrowing these logs to the shed. Suddenly mummy robin flew off the nest and out the door. I didn't see her but my mate did and pointed it out. A quick look into the nest confirmed 5 eggs were in it. He says she (and he, cos he's seen cock robin on egg-warming duty as well) has obviously got used to him, but three of us in the shed must have been a bit much. I wondered what the effect of a noisy saw will have on little chicks when the eggs hatch, but as my mate pointed out: the parents must know what they're doing and know it's a noisy place and also the chicks are there now, growing inside the eggs and so are being conditioned from the embryo stage to the sound of a circular saw! I can't decide if this is funny or cruel, but they must know what they're doing as he says, so who are we to interfere.