Two little willy wagtails have been teasing me for a while now. They have a nest hidden somewhere in the old barn. This afternoon they were particularly crotchety when I entered their territory. As I returned home I spotted one of them flit through a low hole in the wall and emerge through the door a little above ground level. I guessed what had happened. The almost-fledgling has become too exuberant and fallen from the nest into an old flower pot. No wonder Mum and Dad are so concerned. I'll check tomorrow to see what happens from here.
Its been a testing time for our bird population. Many lost babies simply because of the prolonged rain event. The rain was so persistent that the parent birds could not maintain the feeding program. Sadly, since the rain stopped I have found dead baby birds all around the garden. The rainbow bee-eaters (thanks for putting my little jewel on the PP) who build their nests in little tunnels in the ground were hardest hit. The 14 inches of rain that had nowhere to go once the land was saturated simply built up and cover the paddocks and consequently flood the bee-eater nests and drowning their babies. But life goes on. Already new nests are being built and the cycle of life is about to begin again.
Very informative collage. I wondered about the rain and the effect on the birds when I saw your previous post. I hope this little bird in the flower pot makes it.
Australia having lots of rain too! Where is it all coming from? No second crop of winter feed here, fields too wet to get it in, NZ have had terrible rain too. It's been a foul day here! Poor little birds, dead before they have lived!
We needed rain so badly, but if that amount of rain had been spread over the sept - oct it would have done everything more good. But life does go on, and even the boon of rain has it's flip side.
Sadly we can't control the weather and what happens naturally to our wildlife. But they are resistant, and as you said, already rebuilding! At least you have had some decent rain - it's still overcast and drizzly here :(
