I looked out of my kitchen window and noticed something unusual. Two birds looking at each other three feet apart. The blackbird to my left was carrying worms in its beak to feed her young in the bush she was standing nearby. The opposing bird was approaching as if to take the worms from her. The mystery was why wasn’t the blackbird flying up to the nest?

I had to go out and solve this puzzle. As I approached both birds flew away, the blackbird retreated over the garden fence to a nearby tree, still with the worms in her beak. There beneath the bush was the answer. Looking up at me from beneath the bush hosting the birds nest was a cat from the end house, the birds were stacked up on the runway waiting for the cat to leave so they could feed their broods. I clapped my hands sharply and the cat understood it was time to go home!

Now that the unwelcome guess had left the mother bird flew back over the fence into the bush, despite the delay she had completed another successful sortie to find food and satisfy the hunger of the baby birds in her nest.

The weather is warming up and the birds are in good voice. I’m able to tune in to certain songs that I recognize. I have had a blackbird build a nest in the hedge nearest the back door and raise their young. Recently I noticed another blackbird repairing a nest and catching worms to feed a family.

The Wheel of Time

Last year in a bush towards the back of the garden a family of thrushes were sucessfully raised. All this after my cat died.

So life has its compensations.