June 2022
Bye Bye Blackbirds
Ladbrooke was lucky enough to experience its very own Springwatch this season.
On returning from the half term break, the children in reception and nursery noticed that an untidy collection of twigs, leaves and grass had appeared next to one of our security lights.
We watched quietly, but the bird eluded us.
After a while we spotted a dark brown bird flying from the nest and soon after, Verity found an egg shell on the ground beneath it. It was small and blue with brown spots. We used the internet to identify the type of bird from the egg and found that it belonged to a blackbird.
Then one day, we noticed the bird coming and going more frequently and were excited to see other movement within the nest. Mrs Friend climbed precariously on the sand pit and managed to film what was going on.
Again we turned to the internet to find out at what stage the baby birds were. We found out that when they are just out of their eggs the birds are called 'hatchlings'. When they are a still in the nest and being fed by their parents they are called 'nestlings', and when they leave the nest they are called 'fledglings'. We also learned that mummy blackbirds are brown and daddy blackbirds are black.
Finally, all the birds flew away. Once we were absolutely sure that they had gone for good, we brought the nest down to have a closer look.
