I have a creative blackbird nesting in my garden. This week, I was hanging my washing on the line, when I heard something drop down inside the overgrown ivy and creepers that cover the whole of my side wall – it was a blackbird chick fledging the nest. Later, when the chick was gone, I looked into the ivy and found the nest. Woven into it was this:
It’s my kid’s green Power Ranger.
I’ve heard of red kites stealing knickers from washing lines for nesting material, and magpies collecting shiny things for their nests, but blackbirds and Power Rangers, who knew?
It seems unlikely that the blackbird would have had the strength to pick up the Power Ranger and put him in the nest – more likely, the Ranger was already caught up in the ivy and the bird chose to weave the figure into its nest – it’s definitely stitched in there.
Creativity is incongruity. Great ideas come from finding links between things that don’t belong together. I love that the wildlife in my garden follows the same philosophy.
Perhaps two blackbirds carried it up together on a line…