local wildlife (continued)

In the hectic time surrounding our wedding, I forgot to keep you updated on the fate of our small redstarts (yeah, they're actually black redstarts, and not redtails, sorry for the mistake in the previous entry).

The first days they seemed so frail, I thought they would not survive long as the nights were still cool. But they endured, day after day. It became a game to try to find them among the junk scattered in our courtyard. Their favourite spot after the skimboard was under the barbecue (do you know little bird, what was grilled on that thing last weekend?).

They stayed quiet most of the day, except when being fed, but mornings and evenings, the parents pushed them into some activity. Little by little they were jump-flying higher, the stone steps, the lowest branches on the hortensia bush, and farther, a few centimetres, a step, half the courtyard, the whole nine yards (or twelve). They also started to loose their plush aspect, as real feathers replaced the baby down.

They stayed almost a week, during which we tried to avoid going out in the garden. We still had to water the plants once in while, but kept it at a minimum. The last few days, the birds could hide high (eye level with me -and don't say it's not so high!-) in the hortensia bushes. Then they disappeared.

Ian saw one of them again, a week or two later. It looked more like an adult with shorter red tail feathers. The mother was still feeding it.