Nidi di merlo.

Postato il di Tra Italia e Finlandia

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Buongiorno lettori!  Oggi vi racconto una storia curiosa che ci e’ appena capitata.

Tra maggio e giugno siamo stati via da casa per oltre tre settimane e proprio in quel periodo due coppie di Merli hanno deciso di nidificare nel nostro orto.  Purtroppo quando siamo tornati ed abbiamo ricominciato a lavorare nell’orto (se non altro per cavare le erbacce e innaffiare,  visto il periodo siccitoso),  li hanno abbandonati entrambi.  Gli uccelli lo fanno:  quando si sentono in pericolo abbandonano il nido e si mettono in salvo.  Infatti uno dei nidi e’ stato predato da qualcuno,  forse uno scoiattolo.

Ora,  fin qui tutto normale.  La natura e’ programmata cosi’:  gli animali selvatici generalmente temono il contatto con gli esseri umani e si mettono in fuga.

La cosa buffa e’ stata che uno dei nidi era stato costruito ben nascosto fra i rami del Ribes nero,  come vedete nelle foto sopra,  mentre l’altro e’ stato edificato in un posto assolutamente in vista:  alla sommita’ di una pila di cassette che usiamo per conservare le patate in cantina in inverno.  Eccolo nelle foto seguenti:

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La cosa strana non si ferma qui.  Abbiamo notato che la mamma merla viene a covare tutte le notti o comunque quando nell’orto non c’e’ nessuno,  volandosene via quando vi ci rechiamo a lavorare o a raccogliere l’insalata.  Al che abbiamo ipotizzato che questa seconda coppia di merli sia una coppia giovane e senza esperienza:  dato che il nido e’ collocato in un luogo non protetto e una volta abbandonato e’ perfettamente inutile tornare a covare,  poiche’ i pulcini sono irrimediabilmente morti,  senza un adeguato calore.

Mi piacerebbe sentire le opinioni degli amici bloggers esperti birdwatchers a questo proposito.

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Concludendo:  a noi non rimane che ammirare la maestria con la quale i nidi sono costruiti:  rifiniti persino con muschio;  del resto come dice l’amico Gigi:  “La natura e’ perfetta” e gli uccelli sono dei costruttori pazzeschi,  soprattutto considerando che hanno a disposizione solo il becco.

Blackbirds’ Nests.

Good morning readers!  Today I’m going to tell you a peculiar story that just happened to us.   Between May and June we were away from home for over three weeks and in that period two pairs of Blackbirds decided to nest in our veg yard.  Unfortunately,  when we returned and started working in the garden again (if only to dig out weeds and water,  given the dry period),  they both abandoned the nests.  Birds do it:  when they feel in danger,  they leave the nest and get to safety.  In fact,  one of the nests was plundered by someone,  perhaps a squirrel.

Now,  so far so normal.  Nature is programmed like this:  wild animals generally fear contact with humans and escape.  The funny thing was that one of the nests had been built well hidden among the branches of the blackcurrant,  as you can see in the first photos above,  while the other was built in an absolutely visible place:  at the top of a pile of boxes that we use to store potatoes in the cellar in winter.  You can see it in the remaining photos.

The weird thing doesn’t stop here.  We have noticed that the mother blackbird comes to brood every night or in any case when nobody is in the garden,  flying away when we go to work or to collect salad.  At this point we thought that this second pair of blackbirds is a young and inexperienced pair:  given that the nest is located in an unprotected place and once abandoned it is perfectly useless to go back to hatching,  since the chicks are irretrievably dead,  without adequate heat.

I’d like to hear the opinions of expert birdwatchers bloggers friends on this subject.

All we have to do is admire the skill with which the nests are built:  even finished with moss.   But as our friend Gigi says:  “Nature is perfect” and birds are skilfull builders,  especially considering that they can help themselves just with their beak.

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55 risposte a "Nidi di merlo."

  1. Blackbirds are very fast: Two weeks sitting on the eggs, two weeks feeding the kids, and then they are out. Last year I watched one. I don’t know when she started breading, but I knew exactly the day when they started feeding the youngs, and exactly two weeks later they flew.
    I remember that the female was sitting on the eggs most of the time, she left just to find some food. The male is not feeding the female. What irritates me: The males are allways nearby. The sing in the evening, and this marks their territory. Every summer I can identify the dominat couple in our garden. I don’t think, we have two nests near each other. You should be able to identify the dominant male. When the young blackbirds are out of the eggs, the male starts feeding them too. But his main job starts, when the kids leave the nest. The female started building a new nest nearby, and he took care of the fledglings.

    Piace a 2 people

  13. Beautiful, great observation and nature is such. Its beautiful and amazing but human mind is still not that skilled to understand well as we have seen. “Nature is prefect”, like that world and I totally agree!

    Piace a 1 persona

  17. Eigentlich verlassen Vogel Eltern niemals Nest und Eier.
    Schade um die Brut.
    Die Bilder sind sehr schön.
    Wir sind gehalten, keine Nester mit Eiern zu posten und wenn wir Vögel auf Ornitho.de melden werden Nester nicht veröffentlicht.
    Das soll wohl die Vögel schützen. Aber dein Nest wurde ja schon aufgegeben.
    Traurig.
    Herzlichen Gruß Brigitte

    "Mi piace"

  18. Danke Brigitte. Unsere Nester wurden offensichtlich sofort verlassen, als wir nach Hause kamen. Die Vögel wählten diese beiden Orte, nur weil wir weg waren, sonst würden sie andere und sicherere Orte wählen. Andererseits hat jemand ein paar Eier gefüttert, vielleicht ein Eichhörnchen oder der Fuchs oder der Marder …
    Ich freue mich sehr über deine Kommentar und Ihre Informationen. Guten Nachmittag!

    Piace a 1 persona

  19. We have Wrens that will build a nest in a flowerpot or even in something as odd as a boot left on a porch. They don’t seem to mind being close to humans as long as the activity isn’t too much. But one of the oddest nesting habits that I see are those of Killdeer, a type of shorebird. They nest on the ground. We saw one nest in a small patch of grass next to a maintenance building on the nearby wildlife refuge. The staff even placed orange cones and tape around the spot so that people wouldn’t accidently step on the nest! Killdeer are one of the birds that fake a wing injury to lure a predator away from a nest. There are so many amazing things in nature.

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  21. Bei uns haben Amseln im Balkonkasten gebrütet ohne sich von uns stören zu lassen.
    Vielleicht weil ihr nicht von Anfang an da wart. Aber eigentlich verlassen auch dann Vögel ihre Nester nicht.
    Ich kann es mir nicht erklären.
    Schade, dass Eier gefressen wurden, aber so ist es in der Natur.
    Unser Nachmittag wird sehr stürmisch 🙈
    Danke für den guten Wunsch 😊

    "Mi piace"

  22. Hello,
    The birds are not always smart as far as where to build their nest. It is sad the eggs were abandoned, I am sure there was a good reason. Take care, enjoy your day!

    "Mi piace"

  28. I had a nest in my garden centre one time, we had to cordon off and protect it with fence panels to try to prevent customers from disturbing it. I happened to have a week off work when they were due to fledge but when I came back the panels and nest were gone. I never found out whether the store manager waited for me to go away to get rid of it or whether they successfully fledged. It wasn’t a very clever place to build a nest, I think at the time it was a temperature decision as the garden centre was a few degrees warmer, as I guess your spot might have been too.

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  31. The American Robin is a close cousin of the Blackbird and makes the same kind of nest. Two years ago a pair of them built a nest inside our garage, on top of some old doors leaning against the wall. It was sheltered, but the jays found it and ate the eggs. This year the robins built another nest in the garage, but they hid it high up in the rafters. They were nervous whenever we were in there but they didn’t fly off. A few days ago the mother was feeding a fledgling in our driveway, so this year they were successful.

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  33. I love looking at nests and discovering the different materials birds use to build their nests. When my girls were little and had streamers on their bike handles that would inevitably fall off in play, we’d later find them woven into a robins nest amongst the grasses. I’m no bird expert just one who watches and enjoys and I must say that there is certainly a nest building learning curve for the first timers.

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  39. Bellissimi!
    Nel mio giardino vengono a trovarci merli, passeri, piccioni e gazze ma non nidificano più qui perché i gabbiani fanno razzia.
    Gli unici che resistono sono i pipistrelli (oltre ai gabbiani naturalmente).

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