Post by YorksherLass on May 23, 2019 15:21:15 GMT
As soon as I've posted this message I'm going offline to sit in the garden to unwind, because I found out a couple of hours ago that I have joined "the grieving group" as well as so many others on here this lousy year!
Gerry took the lid off the nestbox & then my heart broke. 
Straight away I saw that Mr. GT Merlin was dead from his size & then I thought there were three dead chicks with him, but after taking the sad photo below, I very carefully took them all out ready for burial (with flowers) in the garden. There were 5 chicks altogether, 2 were hidden under 3 chicks, not far off fledging.
I'm guessing it's pesticides from the new build over the back fence, as all those people didn't move into their properties until June last year & this has never happened before. I saw Merlin on the morning of the 21 May still bringing caterpillars from the oak tree next door (no pesticides anywhere in gardens alongside me) but as others have said, what has he eaten himself and fed the chicks with - something been sprayed or slug pellets laid down?
