Blackie

It was an interesting day today, after setting off for a contract meeting with a client I received a phone call from one of our Directors telling me it was cancelled and to come back and have the morning off, after arriving home we went and sat out at one of the outside tables which is in the shade of some trees.

Recently we have had a semi tame blackbird who has become used to us sitting out and she has become tamer to the point where she will come almost up to us, and she has also been feeding chicks with the bird feeders we have hanging in these trees, and from the small pieces of wholemeal bread we throw under them. She has an injured leg and we dont know if this is as a result of an injury or a birth defect but while she walks a little funnily it doesn't seem to bother her.

I decided to have lunch before going back to work and while I sat out with my lunch, I got the surprise of my life, the blackbird appeared and she had two of her new brood with her and she came right up to us and landed on the table and tried to pinch my omelette from the plate, she wouldn't be shoo'd off and persisted in trying to pull pieces from my omelette until I picked the plate up and she sat on the table so I cut her a piece off and hand fed her, both her chicks came down and they wanted some so I cut them a piece off and hand fed them.

Some while ago I rescued another blackbird and nursed her back to health, she was very tame and would come to me when I shouted her, she used to come in when I got up and have her cereal for breakfast with water, she would come in the tractor with me and sit on the dashboard for hours, if the 4X4 sunroof was open she would fly in there and perch inside the passenger headrest and travel for miles in the car, and every year when she had chicks she would bring them onto the lawn to say hello and I would shower them with the hosepipe on a very fine mist. We had her for 8 years until a bad winter took her; is this the new tame blackie.

Now that’s really cool, especially blackbirds. You must have an affiliation with nature. Respect.
The only time that I experienced this sort of thing was on the island of Tresco in the scilley isles off cornwall. The small birds jump on your fingertips to eat out of your hand.

Its very nice and we do feed the birds all year round and ensure they have plenty of water, even in winter when it is frozen.

My old blackbird was a suicide merchant as she used to sit on top of the hedges and wait for them to come past, she would then pounce on them and chase them off, hilarious to watch.

A friend where he lived had king parrots and it was good when you had them eating out of a bowl from your hand. I got the chance to have one to stand on my hand and eat out of a bowl. They are so light and they wrap their toes around your fingers as it ate. One day i had one king parrot swoop me as it wanted to be feed and it was very impatient and i had to tell it that i first had to get a bowl and it waited and watched me get a bowl to put the feed in the bowl. Once i filled the bowl that it flew straight over to me and the bowl and landed and started eating without any manners.