I think I'll try just one more ....

I went to top up the bird feeders which seemed to have been emptied rather faster than usual yesterday. I put out some more suet on the tray hanging beneath the rhus tree, as Helena found that the blackbirds could safely use it for feeding. They can't eat from the other hanging sunflower feeders and rely on finding droppings on the ground, which is very unsafe given how many cats are living around the back gardens.

We saw a big baby blackbird being fed sunflowers seeds and suet directly into its mouth by its parent yesterday, on the patio table. We also see woodpeckers doing this quite openly, as well as nuthatches. As it was raining again, I stayed in the cabin after adding more food and then sat on a chair in the open doorway, which partially hid me from sight, to see which birds might arrive. Within minutes there were many tits, a robin, two nuthatches, a red breasted bullfinch and a couple of blackbirds.

It was very dark under the tree, so I had to bump up the ISO, and any efforts to catch images of the birds flying were very poor. The blackbirds dominated the tray and saw off even the nuthatch, who had to wait his turn. I noticed in several visits that the blackbird would swallow several chunks of the suet whilst either standing on the edge, or in the tray itself. Then it would start pecking the pieces up into its beak, cramming in as many as possible before flying off to feed its young I suppose. I counted six pieces in its beak on one visit. Here it is contemplating getting just one more.