As I went out my front door
this morning, prepatory for heading for work at 6am, I had another of
the lovely little widlife vignettes I so enjoy.
An adult blackbird had
brought back an enormous lump of bread for a very grown up fledgling
on my driveway, so grown up its gape had faded and it was practically
larger than its parent. However, the bread was far too big for even
the greediest of chicks, so after an initial attempt at feeding
bounced off the fledglings head, the ungrateful child peeped
insistently at the adult until it tried again, with exactly the same
result.
I was reminded of the “And
that's how I acquired my drinking problem” scenes from the Airplane
movies.
Eventually, after a few
avian accidental headbutts the bread had reached edible size, and the
fledgling was duly fed, with that same insistent peeping in between
each mouthful. Early evening at home, there were three fledglings sat
on my back wall; I pity the parents of this demanding little brood.
I love such moments;
unremarkable, un-noteworthy perhaps, but a cheerful sign of life
going on around you as the prospect of a grim roadwork hassled cycle
to work looms over your helmeted head. When I arrive, there's often a
singing linnet sat on the fence at my grim industrial workplace, but
that's another vignette I may have written about before, and may do
again.
Copyright
creamcrackerednature 03/07/14
