In article , Jane Ransom
writes
In article , Paul
D.Smith writes
Sounds like your blackbirds are searching for slugs

No, no, no - blackbirds do not eat slugs!!
They are just searching for worms and insects.

Hey, why not give blackbirds the credit that is their due?!

They certainly do eat slugs as is confirmed by this quote from the
monograph 'British Thrushes' (Simms 1978): "Slugs stand rather low in
human esteem due to their slimy quality and the damage that some will do
in our gardens. The garden slug (Arion hortensis) breeds throughout most
of the year and is our best known slug, while the netted slug
(Agriolimax reticulatus) is the commonest British slug and when
contracted has a characteristic dome-shaped body. Both species figure in
the diet of mistle thrushes, song thrushes, redwings and blackbirds.
Before eating them or feeding them to their young the adults birds will
generally wipe them on bare earth or on grass to remove the slime. One
individual redwing in my garden spent half a minute doing this and
blackbirds may remain occupied in the task for several minutes at a
time."

--
Malcolm