Black redstart baby

A Black Redstart had two broods in my house last summer - the first in May, another in July/August. There were so many holes in the attic that it was easy for her to flit in and out, and before I moved in she only had to contend with building noise downstairs. She didn't like it when anyone climbed a ladder and invaded her space, and would flit round the attic tutting furiously. Her first nest was on the north wall, propped on a beam; the second at the top of the king post in the roof. By the time her second brood was fledging, I'd moved in. One baby mucked up his first flight from the nest and had fluttered to the floor of my 'bedroom' - there being no floor/ceiling between it and the attic. The baby didn't have the oomph to fly out again, so for a week or ten days he was stuck in the room with me. I'd wake most mornings to find myself the object of a beady-eyed stare from a disapproving feathery face. As soon as I moved, he'd go all shy and scurry behind a bit of plasterboard leaning against the wall. If I lay very still with my eyes half-shut, mum would tut about, her mouth full of grubs and flies, until she felt safe to drop down, feed her chick, and zip out again. The persistence paid off. I'd been worried about finding a sad little body, but mum fed him until he was strong enough to fly up and out, and for the rest of the summer I saw him perched on top of the hayloft, happy as larry.

He was fully-grown before Hobbs arrived, and she hasn't yet caught a redstart, so with luck he survived to migrate south and will be back this summer.