Blackbird

We’ve had a pair of blackbirds visit our garden nearly every morning. Whilst the male wanders around the lawn picking up juicy worms and grubs, the female is ferreting around in the undergrowth to find nesting material. As soon as she has a decent amount in her beak, she pauses on the garden wall for a few seconds, whilst settling the load, before heading off to the nest. She will sometimes make two or three trips whilst the male just continues to feed himself. It would appear that sex equality has yet to feature in the world of blackbirds!
That’s not to say the male doesn’t do anything else. Having found what appears to be an ideal mate, he does seem to spend quite a bit of time - mainly in the evening - seeing off rival suitors. Some quite spectacular airborne fights have been observed, though they are over so quickly that I’ve never been able to get a photo of it. Depending on the persistence of the rival suitor, it sometimes takes several attempts before the usurper is banished from the cul-de-sac (it seems a victory is declared if the rival has to perch on the wall at the end of the road!)
This picture was actually one of a batch I took a few days ago - now that everything is coming into bloom in the garden it is getting harder to get a clear picture without leaves and branches in the way!
I don’t know where the actual nest is - it’s not in our garden, and I think the only reason the birds visit us is because we’re one of the few houses in our road who haven’t turned their gardens over to hard landscaping.
Judging by the amount of material that has been carried off, it should be quite a substantial nest, and I suspect it won’t be long before eggs are being laid and - hopefully - hatched. If previous years are anything to go by, we should expect to see a fledgling alongside one or other of the parents in the next few months.
It seems the quality and location of our worms and grubs is something that gets handed down from generation to generation!