Wednesday 30 March 2011

Fully Fledged in the Toon

I was In Newcastle yesterday, by the Civic Centre, when the begging call of a young bird caught my ear. A full grown fledgling blackbird was hassling it's mother amongst the flower bed. By my reckoning the parents must have been getting 'jiggy' mid Feb.

3 comments:

  1. Tim - does it only take Blackbirds 6 weeks from jigginess to kicking the kid out the nest? Is that not a little too quick?

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  2. Well, for Blackbirds, it takes 12-15 days to incubate the eggs, 12-15 days to fledge them and kick them out the nest and a couple more weeks to 'grow them on'. The nest building takes a week or more and the courtship ... reckon they met at an Xmas party :)

    These timescales are pretty much the norm for many passerines.

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  3. I am older and wiser. How is it it has taken me 22 years to grow my kids on and they're still here!

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