BLACK BEAUTIES

by Barbara Sheppard

This is the story of Mr and Mrs Blackbird who live in a big oak tree in the park.

If you look very hard, you will see high up in the branches a nest and Mrs Blackbird is sitting very still with her wings spread out covering her newly laid eggs. They are a lovely pale green colour with brown speckles on them and they are very shiny.

One day she said to Mr Blackbird - "Would you please come and take over and keep the eggs safe whilst I go and look for some food as I am very hungry and would like to stretch my wings a bit".

"Yes, of course I will my dear, off you fly and take care," said Mr Blackbird.

So Mrs Blackbird flew on to the nearest branch, looked around her, took a deep breath and thought - "Oh yes, this feels good," and was soon soaring high in the sky feeling the wind beneath her wings flying high then low, catching in her beak any insect that was flying by her and enjoying their nice crispy taste.

She flew out of the park and was soon flying over many houses with large gardens. She swooped low over one of the the gardens and she could see on one of the branches of a small tree that there was a small cage that seemed to contain lots of nuts and bird seeds.

There were a lot of robins, sparrows and thrushes all eagerly awaiting their turn to fly on to the cage and eat the seeds.

Some of the robins and sparrows were busy pecking in the undergrowth picking up the seeds that had escaped from the cage as the birds were busily eating as much as possible, enjoying every moment.

"Oh", thought Mrs Blackbird, "I must try this," and she flew down to the branch just as a sparrow had decided that he had had enough to eat. But as Mrs Blackbird tried to attach herself to the cage, she found that she was too big and couldn't hold on to it. She suddenly fell to the ground.

"Ouch," she cried, "that hurt," and all the sparrows and robins fell about laughing at her.

"It isn't funny," she shouted, "I've hurt my back."

She quickly hopped on to her feet and rubbed her back with her long black wing and soon felt better again. "Well,I wont do that again," she thought, "the robins and sparrows can eat all those seeds."

She flew into another garden where the lady of the house had scattered lots of breadcrumbs and nuts over the lawn for the birds to eat.

She hopped around the lawn, stopping now and again with her head tilted on to one side, to see if she could hear a worm making his way to the surface. But no luck, so Mrs Blackbird was free to tuck into all the crumbs and nuts and have a good feast, whilst keeping an eye out for any big cat that might be hiding nearby!