Bird news - from the Crazy Crow Lady

So, mainly I have seen only Three of the Brave Three. Today, someone was shouting at him from a tree, but on this occasion the other Crow made an appearance. at first I hoped it was She-D, but she didn't look as bedraggled nor could I see the white markings and nor was she feeling brave. When she landed she almost fell over as one foot was clearly painful.

When I saw She-D (when it definitely WAS She-D), Mrs Fluffy and Mrs Flying, all of them did a strange thing... sort of sinking to the ground and fluttering or squirming. On each occasion I thought they were sick or dying but now I think it's related to sitting on a nest... maybe itchy mites in their feathers?

So when I saw the Crow with Three fall at first I thought that was what was happening - but no, she was limping. Or he.

I have still seen no baby Crows but I did see some baby Blue and Great Tits.

First, and most important: DO NOT DISTURB BIRDS' NESTS!!!

You need a LICENCE to do this. Mischa has a licence and part of her role as Reserve Officer for Pitsford Nature Reserve is to monitor the birds who use the nest boxes.

She invited Kate and I, two new Volunteer Officers, to accompany her as she inspected the boxes and ringed the hatchlings, those who were large enough to ring.

This chap was one of the larger ones.

Mischa describes the newly hatched babies as 'in the jellybean stage'. They are wriggling, breathing, blind and so vulnerably, devastatingly alive. Tiny. Smaller than the top section of my thumb.

The mothers stay on the eggs until they have hatched and then both parents catch food for the hungry brood. As Mischa put rings on the babies, often two parents shouted at us from the branches above. Sometimes, she says, they dive at you.

Sometimes the mother was sitting on her hatchlings, wings protectively spread. We saw three Blue Tit mothers in their boxes. Two stared up with their huge black eyes, the cobalt of their heads and wings like a patch of sky brought into our earth-bound lives. One stared then suddenly fluttered and hissed! It was enough to shock you away. That tiny creature, courageous in maternity.

I know you can reduce this to instinct and gene and hormone coded behaviour - but you can do exactly the same for humans. We too are biological beings.

Mischa said that Tits literally put all their eggs in one basket - they have one large brood a year. Some boxes had as many as nine live hatchlings.She said that the most dangerous time is when the babies leave the nest - they have feathers, but they are not as plush or waterproof as adult plumage and the young birds can easily die of exposure. She also said that if a pair of Long-Tailed Tits do not manage to raise any chicks, the male will fly off to help his parents with their brood and the female will do likewise for her parents and siblings.

The experience for me was magical. Awe-inspiring.

The Starling babies visit daily to bathe and dry off on my Lazarus-Lilac.

And me... I did a piece of Crow-Poplar art-dreaming.

The tree is in the wounded earth, struggling to survive, but filling the air with oxygen and aromatics. The bird is the warning and the promise in one.