Nesting

“Life is always a rich and steady time while you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.”

E.B White, Charlotte’s Web

This is not a steady time but one of rapid and radical change.
Even so, I can’t wait for hatch-day.

It won’t be long, nearly time now.

I’ve been watching a pair of Grey Shrike-thrushes for four years.
Both male and female nest build, incubate and raise the chicks together.
There is only one alpha couple in each 2 to 10-hectare radius.

Alpha male thrush with dark eye ring singing all day.

This male and female are the Harry and Meghan of birds.

Alpha female with a pale eye ring.

Their 2019 fledglings were thrown out of their territory when they were five months old, as are any other thrushes that come near my mountain home.

Their breeding season is between July and February. They have one brood a year, and they had that early last September.