July saw many fledglings in my back yard. The starlings came in one sunny day (at the start of the month).......a couple of adults and about eight young. The sparrows also had a couple of young ones with them, noticable by their constant quivering. I have a pair of resident blackbirds who live in the ivy at the back of the garden, they also had a young one but rarely seen. Mrs blackbird (and it always seems to be she who is the most defensive of the territory) had shown objection to two young starlings in the past and had a tendancy to chase them off. This day with so many of them and with adults present i thought she might have the wisdom to hold her peace. She did not. As the starlings feasted on some dried fruit and grain i had put out, she started to harrass one or two of them in the vain hope that they would leave. Suddenly as if some signal had passed between them three starlings shot into ivy followed by the startled blackbird. There was a screeching and a squawking - one hell of a ruckus - with the ivy shaking up and down for several minutes, then they each shot out again just as quickly and the starlings flew off with their young. When all was quiet i went to investigate the ivy and saw the blackbirds nest dislodged and turned on its side in the thick of the green vines. Fortunately no eggs and no young seemed to be present. But a sorry lesson for the blackbird..........don't mess with the starlings!

What i found so amazing was that they seemed to know exactly where the nest was and honed right in on it in a flash. I also wondered why they were so unwelcome by the blackbird but she no problem sharing the garden with the sparrows.