The Second Wave
It seems that there’s no stopping Skanky. Our tail-less Lothario has been at it again. Not content with raising one brood, he’s now fathered a second wave, such as the little blighter in the picture. 
At one point we thought that he might even have fathered a third brood; at one point on Friday night we had six, maybe even seven blackbird chicks hopping in and out of the big flowerbed at one side of the front lawn. Every time Kate turned around from where she was standing in the flowerbed, another fledgeling was cheeping at her.
Then we saw the second male, much less…well…skanky, full grown tail feathers, sleek black plumage…but no match for our resident bruiser who glared at him from the top of the greenhouse. Perhaps it was the presence of the youngsters that kept Skanky from launching himself at the interloper. in all likelihood, half of those fledgelings were his.
To be honest the birds are becoming more reliant on us for food than I’d like, but there seem to be many less bugs and pests than in previous years, and if the alternative is that they starve, then a few quid each week on mealworms and sunflower hearts is worth it.
Not unusual for blackbirds to have three broods but they don’t carry on much into June. Don’t worry about being inundated: cats, cars, sparrowhawks and life in general will take their toll over the coming year. (Tried posting to your blog but keep getting server reset or no permission message.)
Cav,
Andy,
I wasn’t so much concerned as amused by the number of blackbirds! My concerns were about the morality of making wild creatures dependent on us, and where and when do we draw the line about stopping feeding them? No easy answers, of course…it’s up to us to make the decision.