Photo taken yesterday morning. The previous day, there had been a lot of frenzied activity from Mr and Mrs Swallow so I am guessing these alien babies hatched on 20th, which was Auntie Pollie’s birthday, so rather poignant.
It’s difficult to tell if all six eggs have hatched. I think I can see five babies, and I love how their little bare and stumpy wings seem to be cuddling around each other! Time will tell, and they will quickly transform into angry feathered aliens before fledging mid-June. The rapidity of ‘egg to fledge’ phase always amazes me. They become independent so quickly.
As I am writing this, a couple of chaffinch babies are trying to work out how to get onto the dove cote. Chaffinches, like blackbirds and thrushes, seem to prefer to feed from the ground, but after several failed attempts to gain access by flying in, one of these industrious babies has managed to negotiate its way up the branches of the witch hazel, which is in a pot next to the dove cote, and stepped onto the bottom tier! And now it’s there, it doesn’t quite know what to do.
Life is one big, and sometimes confusing, adventure.
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