Skulking

I was sitting at the table outside, encouraging butterflies, when this little one emerged and wandered round the corner. Tentative and a little bewildered. A young Blackbird.

Earlier in the day I am sure I just caught a male blackbird sending a youngster into the hedgerow, so maybe this is the one and it is now regularly 'escaping'.

The brown speckled plumage is very different from either parent, possibly for camouflage. It will replace all its body feathers in a post-juvenile moult, but apparently young males retain their brown wing feathers throughout the following year. I didn't know that.