You can run, but you can't hide...

It's been go, go, go all day with the blackbirds.

Both chicks left the nest today - this is the second, contemplating take-off.
Edit - I've changed the shot because I think this is better - same chick after take off (see below). The other is on Flickr.

I did actually write a fascinating account of the whole palaver, but "an error occurred" - aaagh! This has never happened before, but as we all know, there's always a first time and it happens to be on the occasion of my longest ever blurb, which I can't possibly remember until I've had some sleep. It's been a long day.

Come back in about 24 hours for all the details and a link to the some of the other bird-related moments of today...

...and here it is:

Starting at 7.30am - a bit early for me, but that's birds for you - much coming and going by the parent birds. I've been expecting the chicks to leave the nest any day now and today was the day. All morning there was much feeding, stretching, checking out the scene and experimental wing-flapping by the chicks.
If I come anywhere near them the parents fly off and the chicks hide in the nest, so I've had a mirror set up ready for some days now. From the bedroom window, I can see the nest and they apparently can't see me.
Inherent problems:
Have to keep the window closed and shoot through the glass, because the sound of the shutter scares the birds off.
Have to zoom to capacity, because of the extra distance involved in bouncing off the mirror.
There's not much light up there, flash causes opaqueing of the image so tie a lamp with a 150 watt globe to the rafters. Being 150 watts, can't leave it on all the time or the fitting will melt.
Diopter adjustment doesn't go far enough for my eyes, so focussing is guesswork - can't use autofocus because it either focusses on the window glass or on the mirror, but not on the birds. Sigh!

Anyway. I took about 250 shots (not counting the really obvious rubbish that I deleted straight away) and there are maybe half a dozen that aren't too bad. There are a few more that would have been good, had they not been so grainy, noisy, unsharp... (Sigh, sigh!) I've put some of them on Flickr, for interest - certainly not for photographic showing off! At least I'm learning about how to work the Big Camera.

The first chick made the Big Decision at about 4.00 pm. Took a leap and made it the length of the verandah before a crash landing on the dead cactus (nice!). Took a minute to recover and then a second flight into the undergrowth.

The parents kept feeding the second chick and at about 7.30, he/she decided it was time. I was actually on the verandah, so was able to watch it get out of the nest, think about it and take off. Unfortunately, because I was there, it chose a different direction to the other chick and slammed into a small window at the house end, picked itself up and ran into the house. Great! It did a fast circuit of the house, on foot, until it could go no further. At this point I got probably the best shots of the day (including the above). Not wishing to handle it in case the parents rejected it, I caught it in a big tupperware container and got it outside. It was so freaked out by this, there was nothing to do but release it as quickly as possible.

So endeth the tale of the blackbirds.
The nest is empty and I kind of miss them.
I've heard them calling to each other in the garden though, so I guess they're still okay. Today, anyway.