Terrorized (The bird and me)

I was mowing the backyard this evening and scraped up my fingers on a low hanging branch of a pine tree as I tried to mow underneath of it. After I finished mowing the grass, I decided to cut the lower branches off the tree to prevent future injury. As I was sawing the last branch, a little black bird dropped down and then a second one quickly followed.

I looked up and could not see any evidence of a nest. As soon as the birds dropped, two blackbirds started flying above swirling around squawking like crazy. While they were flying above, this little guy hopped on the branch and just stood there quietly looking at me. I knew I had to do something quickly to get the birds to a safe place (e.g. out of reach of my dogs).

So I decided to go back the house and get some gloves and of course the camera. As I approached the house, the adult blackbirds followed me and did the most awful thing - They dive bombed the robins nest that I blipped over the last two days and popped three of the babies out of the nest. Fortunately, they landed in my neighbors garden plot which is pretty well protected (fence around it) and they seemed to be OK after their fall.

The adult blackbirds and the robins (both mom and dad) had quite the aerial fight (lasted for about a minute) right after that. Both sets of parents then went back to check on their babes...

When I went to the backyard to complete my blip and rescue, the first blackbird was where I left him. The second one had wondered off about 25 feet. So I blipped this birdie first (10 shots) and then started the rescue mission.

I put the gloves on and picked up the bird that wondered off - It started squawking as soon as I touched it and got the parents angry as hell... 4 more adult blackbirds showed up to give their support (swirling above and squawking). I carried the bird to my neighbors yard next door and put it down on the ground. Did the same with the young one pictured here and then went back to my house. Two minutes later the parents and their other adult friends were swarmed around the babies in their new location and were checking them out.

Needless to say, this was probably the most terrorizing blip for me and my subject. Let's hope the babies from both nests make it to adulthood...

Have a good night