One of the first things I do each morning (after handing Little Miss Susi a jerky treat for breakfast and going to the loo of course) is walking over to the balcony to check if the blackbirds are there and if they still have enough food. Especially on cold days like today. Birds hardly ever freeze to death, but they starve while they’re burning tons of calories trying to keep their little bodies warm.

When I looked today I saw Mr. Blackbird sitting on the huge tree opposite of my appartement. I opened the door and called him, waving with a pack of raisins. He must have been waiting already cause he immediately flew over. I threw some on the floor and he came closer to eat. After munching 3 or 4 of them he went to the edge of one of the flower pots – on of his favorite look-out spots, and tweeted something that faintly seemed to immitate the word “Rosinchen” (which is a diminutive for raisin in German) in the direction of the lawn where the Mrs. usually hangs out. Then he flew off. Only  seconds later Mrs. Blackbird came over to have a late breakfast.

The picture above was taken 5 days ago. Mr. Blackbird was sitting in the lavender bush. I found it amazing that he seems to trust me enough by now that I could take that pic with the distance between us being less than one meter, and no door inbetween! It was a very windy day, that’s why his feathers look kind of ruffled.