What a day to fledge, very wet and very windy yet the two Redstart fledglings just sit and call and the dutiful parents keep on feeding. The 17 eggs in the three Redstart nests produced 10 fledglings which considering the weather over the last month I think is quite remarkable.
The Willow Warblers, from a nest of 6 eggs, successfully fledged at least 3 young today. The nest in on the ground is a concealed 'cave' of grasses lined with feathers, how it stayed dry in the atrocious weather of the last 9 days is quite astonishing. The youngster in the photograph looking rather wet was bolder than the other two, they disappeared into the undergrowth before I could get the camera focused. Their parents were calling carrying food so I did not linger.
We really could do with a warm sunny break in this weather to give all these fledglings a chance.
At the bird feeder several young Chaffinches are learning not to share the peanuts with a couple of juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers, several times lunges from the Woodpeckers have resulted in clumps of feathers falling to the grass as the young Chaffinches made their escape.
Similarly whereas adult Great Tits take precedence over the Siskins on the feeder the Siskins just ignore any advances from the juvenile Great Tits and carry on feeding, however they all give way to the young Nuthatches, they fledged on 20th May so have 4 weeks of experience in the outside world.
Alan Lyne
Blaenpennal