Swift Half update - 3rd May 2011

• This was gonnae be a long post on the activity in the garden of "Swift Half" over the long weekend, especially yesterday, but because of this morning's activities in the swift nest - (posted above), I'll be very brief.
• Mr.T's four (we think) robins fledged yesterday morning, early (i.e. all covered in down still) as many song birds do - especially thrushes and chats (including robins of course) and wrens.
• All were grounded immediately in the blustery conditions - and Malu found them, or at least two of them.
• He killed one - see photo (click twice to enlarge) and Anna and I rescued another - which we gave back to Mr.T, our neighbour, with a pot of mealworms (live).
• Mr.T left the wee fledgling in view of its mother and soon enough she had spotted it, ushered it to safety and was feeding it our live mealworms - maybe we had a result then?
• As for the dead fledgling - I'm afraid to say our hens ate it whole!
• As with many lumps of meat lying around the garden (no  - not me!), when a hen finds it, be it a dead mouse, a dead bird or what have you - the "finder" shouts with "joy" - the other two hens leg it over, and we have a keystone cops scene played out all over the garden, as the "finder" runs about with its prize, chased by the other two. In this case, Trouble (our black hen) was the prize winner and gulped it down pretty-well whole.
• Other things to note - we have our first elderflowers - three weeks earlier than last year!

• We also have our first honeysuckle flowers - FOUR weeks earlier than last year!