Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 13:23:46 +1030

This little fellow has been running around in the back garden for a few days, being fed by dad and mostly mum. I found his sibling drowned in the fish pond Saturday. I don't know how blackbirds have actually managed to survive over the ages, as the babies always leave the nest far too soon and are helpless on the ground for ages before they can fly. This one doesn't even have a tail, and the one I fished out of the pond only had it's pinfeathers. We actually saw this one fall in the tadpole pond twice on Sunday, it's mum was "fishing" for tadpoles and it ran across and fell straight in, but flew out both times quite easily.