Feisty...

A quieter day at home, catching up with identifications and paperwork from yesterday's fieldwork and preparing for another visit to Chatsworth tomorrow, not to mention dealing with those domestic matters that get brushed aside when working.

I was out in the garden when I noticed a baby blackbird trying to jump into one of our potato bag. I moved towards it, worried that it couldn't fly and would end up as a snack for a cat or fox, but it scuttled into the neglected greenhouse. Battling my way through overgrown brambles and vines, I followed it and eventually managed to gently capture it in a corner.

I then noticed that it had a large swollen tick on its head, so I took it inside and Pete carefully removed the monster with a pair of forceps - and then identified it as a passerine tick Ixodes frontalis. We tried to offer thhe baby bird a mealworm before returning it to the garden, where its anxious parents were waiting, but it was more intent on biting Pete's finger.

You may notice that its eye looks somehat cloudy. This is because I caught it just as its nictitating membrane was closing. The nictitating membrane (from Latin nictare, to blink) is a transparent or translucent third eyelid present in some animals that can be drawn across the eye for protection and to moisten it while maintaining visibility. Birds have full control over these membranes (unlike cats and dogs), and it's possible that the baby blackbird felt threatened and closed it for protection.Humans only have a relict structure, the pinkish fold of tissue in the corner of our eyes, close to the tear duct.