Somewhere in here is a blackbird's nest

This morning I watched a female blackbird working on her nest. 

She carefully scavenged through the remains of last year’s herbaceous plants looking for the most choice pieces.  Once she had a few pieces she flew off to her nest.  After a minute she reappeared and returned to her task of selecting suitable building materials.  It was a pity that I didn’t have time to watch her for longer.

 Normally, the nest is in next door’s leylandii, but this year they appear to have decided to cross the border into my garden.  The Bay Tree (Laurus nobilis) that they have chosen is very close to the usual nesting site, but maybe a little more open – still I can’t spot the nest.
 

All this means that I am going to have to be extra careful watching for the time when the fledglings leave the nest.  There is going to be a higher than usual likelihood that the baby birds will be using our garden as a test launch pad. 

Given that we have gundogs who naturally know that their job is to “help” birds fly, the time when the birds leave the nest is the one time of  year that we do not allow our dogs full access to the garden. 

So, in a month or so, we will have to get out our puppy panels to divide the garden.  Let’s hope that no nest is being built in the other half of the garden.