They are stealing my thatch!

I woke up this morning at 5:15 am to this view, but there was Mr Blackbird stealing my thatch off my thatched swing.

I looked at him and he looked at me. I couldn’t grab my iPad fast enough to take a photo. But this is the view after he had gone.

I need to start from the beginning on this...

I wrote an account here what I though was going on in the soap opera world of the blackbirds
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2449882980122886232
BUT it wasn’t quite accurate.
I have been watching these blackbirds most days.

Then I realised the second Mrs Blackbird was not Mrs Blackbird but Grandma Blackbird...

Confused?

Well it seems now that Mr and Mrs Blackbird did have a baby (they may have had several which is normal for blackbirds). And it appears when nasty Mr Magpie came and devoured the hedge sparrows babies (causing the hedge sparrows to abandon my garden for any further nesting), that Mr and Mrs Blackbird managed to spirit away one of their babies from nasty Mr Magpie, possibly to the ground. But the baby blackbird was unable to fly yet, it would have been too young.

I had noticed ground activity but my garden is well overgrown and there was no way I could investigate. This was on 12 May that nasty Mr Magpie stole the hedge sparrows’ babies.
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2441884050160355965

Just googled and it is looking like this baby blackbird had been forced to leave the nest very early, too early to actually fly, but somehow due to the care of Mr & Mrs B, and the bountiful nature of my garden for wild creatures, it had somehow survived.

I had noticed cat Popeye was very interested in ground level, but it is so thick and overgrown he couldn’t penetrate it no matter how hard he tried.

Then, as I said I noticed an older female blackbird, hence me thinking there was a second Mrs Blackbird.

But the last week I have been watching a fourth blackbird which was fluttering through the branches, but I couldn’t see it properly. I managed to get a few photos of it last week when I realised it was Mr and Mrs B’s baby, but they were poor quality because I couldn’t get near.

Then the baby began flying from one nest to the other on each side of my garden. But there was always one of the two female blackbirds with it while Mr Blackbird was flying out of the garden to get food.

Then the baby blackbird began flying after her daddy when he flew out of the garden to get food. But her flight wasn’t good enough yet and she kept getting stranded high, which meant the female blackbirds both leapt into action because nasty Mr Magpie is still observing from the cherry trees at the end of my garden, although he has not ventured back in again since me and him had a stand off.

It has been imperative that the two female blackbirds, Mrs B and Grandma B (who looks like an older blackbird who presumably didn’t have a mate this year for her own brood) keep the baby blackbird away from Nasty Mr Magpie’s eyes.

Anyway, baby blackbird is now flying very well. Grandma B has now left. Mr and Mrs B and baby blackbird officially left my back garden a few days ago, but they have been circling and landing on my roof.

So, I thought job well done after all that trauma.

BUT this morning I woke up at 5:15 am to see Mr B stealing the thatch off my thatched swing. He looked at me in the eyes...”We’re back,” his eyes said....

It looks like they are repairing the nest or building a new one.

And guess what? Baby blackbird is still with them. She is still a little awkward the way she lands on the thin branches, but mummy and daddy are now teaching her nest building skills and parenting skills...the blackbird soap opera goes on...