Curiousity

The nest was empty this morning, but not the garden!  One of the two fledgling's was sitting on the garden furniture and seemed intent on staying there.  This was not a good idea with feline killing machines in the vicinity!

I grabbed a couple of photo after locking the cat flap and garden doors to prevent Fleur from finding our visitor.  A little later I looked out again and the fledgling was nowhere to be found so I thought we were safe to let the cat out.

It was only late in the afternoon, during G and T time, that the cat suddenly  headed in the direction of the fledgling, that had just appeared from underneath a bench.  Immediate action was needed, L took the cat back into the house and I tried to capture the young bird, but with no success.  It headed into deep undergrowth and didn't come out.  I suppose the likelihood is that this one had managed to fly from the nest, but didn't have the strength to fly back up into the tree, where we had seen one of the parents shortly before.  

This does happen from time to time.  We remember a blackbird chick in the garden squeaking for its parent but unable to escape the garden.  We'll be keeping a close eye out to try and protect it until it is able to fly.  Fingers crossed it is soon able to escape.