In Jacqueline Goossens’ garage you will find the usual things, such as garden chairs, fishing rods and a car. But also: a small winged family. A litter of young blackbirds to be exact. “Almost every day she comes flying in with a mouth full of worms.”
It is a neat nest, balancing on fishing rods on the wall. It was just not the first location that Mom Fladder, the mother blackbird, had in mind. “She first wanted to build a nest on the garden chair cushions, but we still needed them ourselves,” says Jacqueline.
So they removed the seat cushions. “Then she turned her ass and chose another spot, on top of the fishing rods.”
The nest was completed on May 4, filled with 4 eggs. The garage thus became an oversized bird house. The garage actually needed some work. “It was a carport at first, but we closed it. Only the door still had to go in.”
That has to wait a while, otherwise the birds can no longer get out. Fortunately, Jacqueline doesn’t worry about it. “You can always renovate.”
Just using the garage, Jacqueline does: “We’ve been in and out with the car every day,” she says. All the more special that after more than two weeks of brooding, healthy chicks hatched from the eggs.
“I also once raised a nest of sparrows, under a heat lamp.”
“The father and mother regularly fly into the garage at a lousy pace, then they have food with them. Almost every day she comes in with a mouth full of worms.”
Still, it’s handy that there is no door in it. “We just let them have their way.” Jacqueline knows from experience that that is often the best. It is not the first time that there have been litters around her house. “Last summer we even had eight pigeon nests in the garden. Now we also have one, in the garden house.”
Jacqueline finds all those bird nests striking. They don’t do anything to lure the birds. “I’m just putting down some water.”
For now, the winged garage mates are still nameless, but they are being considered. “I once raised a nest of sparrows, under a heat lamp. That was three at the time, I called them Kwik, Kwek and Kwak. But that’s not possible with these blackbirds, these are four. Maybe I’ll call them Kwik, Kwek, Kwak and Kwok,” she jokes.
