Is there any hope?

Today, we have learned a lot about blackbirds. We have a blackbird nest in a leylandii hedge bordering our garden. A few weeks ago we watched Mrs Blackbird fly back and forth with beakfulls of dry grass. Then it all went quiet for a bit, apart from the occasional appearance of Mrs Blackbird at the bird table. Last week, both proud parents were busy finding worms and flying into the hedge, with them hanging streamer like from their beaks. I calculated that they were due to fledge this weekend, any day now. Yesterday, the neighbour had workmen in to trim the leylandii and I duely warned them to take care of the nest. The adults were jumpy and noisy yesterday evening, but I figured if they were still protective, there was something still there to protect and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Imagine my horror today to be alerted by the frantic "chink, chink, chink" of the distressed parents and the sight of a black cat, under the nest site, pawing at and unidentified object! I chased the cat away and peered squeamishly from a distance at a bedraggled heap of feathers which I took to be a dead chick. Vociferously blaming the tree pruners for exposing the nest to danger, I retreated indoors, uncertain whether to show the children as a nature lesson, or keep them indoors for the afternoon (until dear husband returned to remove the corpse) to save them from upset.

However, I had a look on the RSPB website and found a page on abandoned blackbird chicks. Apparently this behaviour is normal! The chicks leave the nest, creeping and fluttering, before they can fly and will even leave early if they are disturbed as a 'anti-predatory adaption'! I do not see how a helpless, flightless chick, sitting on my lawn is in any way better protected than in its nest. It can take a week to learn to fly.

It's still there, and the parents are very busy checking up on it, bringing it titbits and chink, chink, chinking at any threat. I really can't see it lasting the night with neigbourhood cats and foxes on the prowl: my eldest wants to stay up all night with a flashlight to guard it.

I, too, have an irrational urge to protect it. While I am telling the children that this is "nature's way" and that only 30-40% of broods successfully produce adults, I want to offer it worms and provide it with a place safe from predators. I have considered building it a shelter but I wouldn't know where to begin designing something that the parents could access but the local carnivores could not. So it will have to take its chances and, even if it dies its life will not have been in vain, because today, we have learned a lot about blackbirds.