One of the cutest sights of the year so far is this absolutely beautiful partridge and her 13 tiiiiiny chicks. We had to rescue the mummy partridge when she decided to spend her first night with her newly-hatched chicks in the middle of an exposed lawn on a cold night. The lawn was actually being mowed at the time, but luckily none of these miniscule chicks were injured and we popped mum and her baker’s dozen brood into a comfy cardboard box filled with hay, chick crumbs and a drink of water.

They settled down for a night in our brick shed and I’m pleased to say that all survived the night and we could release them in the morning. The mother partridge flew off when she was released, so we put the box on its side at the side of the field and within 2 minutes she had gingerly waddled back over to the chicks, wandered into the box and then reappeared with her 13 chicks running along in a line behind her – these chicks were so small that they were even having a little trouble climbing over blades of grass! All’s well that ends well and here’s a pic of them waddling off – if you look closely you might be able to make out the tiny chicks: