My Friend Speckles

In my writings you will no doubt see mentions of Speckles. Who is Speckles? A blackbird. Yes, a blackbird and quite a character.

Attracting wild birds to come into the garden has been an aim from taking over this current garden. Bird watching in the garden can give hours of amusement. I have to admit the pigeons are not my favourite. They can be amusing but have a nasty habit of bulldozing through plants and flattening them. They have destroyed one of my Hostas!

The blackbirds were one of the first regular visitors. You do not need a degree in ornithology to recognise this bird. Blackbird by name and black bird by colour. They are always on the lookout for food and when a regular source comes onto the horizon they will compete for that territory. The competition starts with a game of dare, when two males dancing into and out of each others designated space to see if they can claim a bit more. If that does not resolve the issue you see them fighting in vertical take off.

Bread of course is something that will attract them but they love pecking their way through an apple. How often have I removed the skin of an apple from the lawn, every scrap of the fruit gone. Many of the windfalls from our apple trees disappear this way. Our trees are very old and the variety lost in the mists of time. They are cooking apples with very soft flesh and excellent flavour. Unfortunately they are just impossible to store. The wasps have a go while they are still on the tree and there is usually a beak mark or two as well. By the time those damaged apples hit the ground they are starting to rot. Does this put the blackbirds off? Not a bit of it, they love them! Must be like drinking home made cider and the same effect on the birds. I read a letter in the RSPB magazine by a man who fed dried fruit to his blackbirds and one became quite tame. So last winter I started to put dried fruit into a bowl on the patio table in view from our kitchen window. Sure enough the visitors started to come. Black birds, thrush and occasional starlings. But there was one blackbird in particular; you could not fail to recognise him as he had a white tail feather and white speckles on his breast and neck feathers. He lost that white tail feather but would you believe that it has been replaced by another.

It was not to long before he started to hang around in the morning when he thought I might be coming out. Bit by bit he gained confidence and got ever closer. So much more confident that eventually I could sit at the table and he would come up onto the table and happily eat in front of me.

Come the spring there was an unexpected bonus. Sugars from the dried fruit must have coated the bottom of the bowl and butterflies emerging from their winter slumbers came to drink all that nutritious liquid.

At the beginning of spring Speckles had a rival for his territory. A young and fit looking male appeared, probably one of Speckles brood from the previous summer. He started to dive-bomb Speckles and claimed the table. Speckles was banished to the other side of the garden looking forlorn. So each morning I was putting fruit in the bowl for the usurper and by the garden shed for Speckles. Then one day there was an almighty scrap. Several aerial battles that resulted in one blackbird on top of another pinning it to the ground. Several minutes passed before the trapped bird was released. And the winner? Speckles. He had his territory back. He sat on the back of the garden bench gaping. It had taken a lot out of him but he was back.

Now I cannot go out of the back door without him appearing. I keep his fruit in the garden shed and if he has not spotted me coming out of the back door I can guarantee I can turn around, look out of the shed door and he will be sitting on the planter just outside looking in. by the way, if the weather has not been to good and I am late going out he will sit on the back of a patio chair looking into the kitchen window. Where are you?

Already this year he has a brood of two that have fledged. He was taking fruit off for them. I could hear them but not see them. Eventually he brought them out for me to see. Talk about fat. Not that I am surprised after all the fruit he has got through.

Our blackbird repays us many fold for the fruit we supply him. When he sits in the sycamore in the evening marking his territory with his beautiful song, it makes any effort on our part very worthwhile. If the weather is very bad and puts him off singing we can always sit indoors and listen to The Beatles Blackbird!

Not found what you are looking for?

Custom Search