Olive thrush nest

I have been rather distracted from my embroidery in the last few days. Out in the garden near my little compost heap, I turned around and there in the tree behind me I looked straight at an olive thrush sitting like a statue on her nest.

This thrush is a forest bird but it has adapted to living in leafy suburban gardens here in Cape Town. I'm thrilled to have the nest here with the chicks. Also thrushes eat worms, snails and spiders, all of which I have plenty in my slightly overgrown garden where I try not to spray or put down poison for the creatures that chew up my plants.

Waiting till the thrush had flown off I managed to stand up on a stool and get a quick photo.

As I clicked the camera I heard a soft cluck clucking behind me and there was the thrush, on the fence with a big fat worm in her beak. The little chicks were so fluffed up that all I got was a picture of feathers and fluff in the nest with no idea of what I was seeing or how many there were. Later I could make out two little beaks pointing skywards on the far side of the nest. Can you see them?

This morning I was a little luckier.





I wonder why that little beak on the right is aimed at the sky?

 

From inside our house, now that we know where to look, every now and then we can just see the little heads bobbing up above the side of the nest. I wonder if we will see them when they venture out of their nest and start to fly?