Five hungry mouths to feed

The spotted flycatcher has hatched five little chicks, and so far all look in fine form.
This means we now get not just the joy of their little heads lifting up if you pass by but also watching Mum's acrobatics as she swoops around catching dinner. A dinner that seems to never cease. They do seem an intelligent little bird, and can be observed removing the sting of wasps and bees that they catch by rubbing them on their perch, in our case the fence posts.
Whilst they're not a spectacular bird to look at they are sadly increasingly rare and now feature on the RSPB Red List. Since the 70's there has been an 80% decline in their numbers, so fingers crossed this year's brood can avoid the owl that destroyed last year's. And if we're lucky there'll even be time for a second smaller brood too.