I have been watching, with mixed feeling, a pair of mud larks making a most elaborate mud nest on a pipe above my car parking space. The mixed feeling come from the fact that birds and baby birds do not wear nappies! I can now take my car to the carwash and it will look less like a Christmas pudding than it does at present.

After a few weeks of shrieking anxiety when anyone came near, three little heads appeared over the edge of the nest. That is the sign of spring that really is delightful. After a few days only two heads appeared and over the last few days I have been witnessing flying lessons with multiple crash landings. One baby was smaller and less competent and its parents left with the stronger baby.

The other baby was abandoned and this morning I went down to look for it only to find its flattened body on the roadway. I cleaned it up before my small grandson who has been watching the nest with great eagerness, arrives for family dinner tonight. What a short little life that baby had. I am probably daft, but I shed a tear.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Latest activities & outreach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.