One chick or two

My parents headed home this evening after an enjoyable few days, mum got to spend a little bit of time on the bench knitting with the girls in between her jobs!

We have done some spit offs with the maidens today, all three girls flatly refused Gianmarco's advances. Star decided that she would like to be mated and sat next to the pen, Marky thought his luck was in.

She is only just 13 months old so I've told her she can wait a little while longer. We are going to mate her this year though as she is a big girl and clearly thinks she is ready. We would usually wait until about 18 months old to mate our girls, however if we have a girl who has matured and is well grown we will consider doing it earlier.

I have been playing lifesaver to one of our sparrow families today. When I first got up I noticed that a tiny bird had fallen out of it's nest onto the patio. It was still alive and I couldn't make my mind up whether I should get a ladder and put it back or try and hand rear it.

It was tiny and after giving it a couple of flies and a grub I managed to find I decided I was going to put it back in the nest. With baby safely returned to its nest I went about my normal morning chores.

The at lunchtime I noticed a slightly larger sparrow chick on the floor, again alive and in need of rescuing, there is obviously a nest malfunction going on! This time daddy sparrow sat on the wall with a beak full of grubs and watched me return his baby to the nest. Once the ladder was removed and I was at a safe distance he went into the nest with lunch and no doubt give his chick a stern talking too.