Blackbird mob

Returning home in the light evening today I noticed Blackbirds 'chinking'. This is a very persistent call, often by several individuals, that I usually associate to summer evenings. The blackbirds, up to four of them, were in the tree where the Tawny Owl nest box is. The owls are indeed in occupation, although they were nowhere to be seen from the ground. They have been calling at dusk, and every few days I have been able to watch one of them as it called, sat on the box for a few minutes and then left to go hunting. Often, later at night, one calls with a lovely gurgling sound from inside the nest. Two of the blackbirds got close to the entrance, calling non stop, if there was an owl in the nest, they might be able to see it. At some point they calmed and left, but then one returned, started calling and the others joined him in the tree.
I wondered that the 'chinking' is not a roosting call, but a mobbing call to an owl, which is more likely to be encountered active as nights become lighter in the summertime. In a couple of weeks, the leaves would obscure the view and although a blackbird calling is evident, a quiet owl sitting inside a tree is not. This is a lovely clip of blackbirds mobbing a Tawny Owl demonstrating the call and also how fearless they are towards the owl.

UPDATE 7 April 2017. From the living room at 20:05, I heard a Blackbird suddenly starting to 'chink' and I looked at the nest box. The round silhouette of a Tawny was sitting atop the nest. It was light enough to get a low resolution photo.

Two nest hole snatchers

Some birds make nests from scratch, building them from twigs, branches, spider's webs, lichens or mud. Others need a hole to nest on, and they will use natural holes or those drilled by other birds. This post is about two such 'nest snatchers' I've watched recently. In the last few days, I've noticed starlings moving a lot of back and forth between an Ash and the grass lawns in my local park. Yesterday, they were actually using last year's Great Spotted Woodpecker's nest. Woodpeckers have a reputation for feeding on the chicks of hole nesting birds, but they also might be providing them with the nest hole in the first place.

A photo from last year (24th June), with a chick almost ready to fledge calling to its parent (on the right branch) 

Yesterday, a Starling getting in the hole

 The other nest snatching event happened just in front of my house. There's been an owl box in the Lime tree in front of the house for over 15 years. It was well used, the hooting and gurgling noises of the Tawny Owls from the nest very obvious in the night. A few years ago the bottom of the nest fell off, and the sky was visible from the ground. On Valentine's day the next year the owls called from the nest, probably inspecting it, but it was deemed useless and we stayed owl-less for a few years. This year, Stock Doves showed a lot of interest in the owl house (top shot taken 9th April). They stuffed the box with branches, and miraculously, the branches stayed, the box had been repaired!

The repaired nest, branches sticking out at the bottom.

 The booming call of the Stock Doves greeted me in the mornings as I left for work. Until one night we heard a Tawny Own hooting. The owl was actually sitting atop the nest, calling, then flew off low over the roofs. The owls have been calling regularly since, and I guess they have taken possession of the owl box and evicted the Stock Doves.
 

 Tawny Owl watching us from the nest box (20th April).