Baby crow

Today's been a difficult day. Ben had his first ever exam, which he found to be a deeply unpleasant experience. He's definitely not looking forward to the second round on Friday morning - and neither am I. It's amazing how different siblings can be - Chris our eldest always viewed exams as an exciting challenge, and Alex is completely laid back about them. But such is life...

I struggled to find anything to photograph today - thougfh I suspect this was because my heart and mind weren't really in the mood. But while we were eating our evening meal I noticed that the blackbirds were making an awful fuss, with lots of loud alarm calls. I eventually went out in the garden to see what was the matter (thinking one of our cats may have been terrorising them) and found a baby crow in a low bush close to their nest.

It allowed me to pick it up and I took a few photographs of it on Pete's hand before placing it on a much higher branch of a tree, out of the cats' reach. It was quite feisty and sized us up with its glittering pale blue eye, even jumping up onto Pete's shoulder and head. Our local pair of crows have attempted to nest three times, but this is the first time they have fledged a chick. We've been checking up on it regularly but so far the parents haven't returned. I just hope they do soon...