Blue Tits Nesting 07.04.12 – 20.05.12
Its early April 2012 and at last we have Blue Tits visiting the
nesting box I made and put up over a
year ago. I followed the recommendation with size specification and added a
better quality roof using Green Mineral felt, polyester backed with a 10 year
guarantee for good measure! I sighted the box not far from the kitchen window
for easy observation, consequently most pictures were taken through the double
glazing and just intended as a diary of events when passing .
It all got off to a good start I
thought, lots of coming and going with nesting material by both birds, so my
optimism was high.
During the previous winter I had
a peep in the box and could see that it was empty which was odd because the
last time I looked I had seen the makings of a really nice nest from the
previous year that did not come to a conclusion, so this was an interesting
development.
Every now and again I had a look
through the window with the camera and took some pictures, mostly on dull days
or after rain. This year we had one of the wettest April's on record. On the odd
sunny day I managed to get some shots of the 2 birds bringing food to the box,
so by now felt assured that we had young in the nest. One thing that did bother
me though, was the frequency of visits to the box, they often seemed to be very
spaced out I thought but I am no expert on these things, as long as 15 minutes
between feeds seemed odd to me anyway.
After not hearing any sound from
the box one day I did take a peep to see 6 very small mouths pointing up at me,
so thought things must be moving along but slowly. I also managed to get a 1 x
picture of the mother sitting on the nest undisturbed. Then a few days after,
visits to the box suddenly stopped. I watched patiently for about 2 hours and
saw no activity, so feared the worst. Sadly my fears were reality. I lifted the
roof on the box to see 1 x dead chick and one cold egg, a sad day.
My feeling is that maybe this
nesting pair are first timers to raising a brood or second year adults that did
not manage to find enough natural food so did not put enough effort in. Each
time I saw the adults with food in their beak it was either fat pellets from my
feeder or the odd spider. I only saw caterpillars a couple of times and maybe
this was a sign of poor food source which could be a result of the wet April
delaying things.
After the shock of finding things
had come to an end, which I was not expecting, I thought it was worth taking
some more pictures of the nest, dead chick and egg as they looked so
beautifully formed.
I have now put the box back up
and left the nest inside in the hope that maybe it will attract another
breeding pair.
Up date 04.06.12
After consulting an expert i have now removed the old nest and
cleaned out the nesting box. Re-sighted it and fingers crossed another pair
will take to it.
I have decided to
frame the nest in a clear box as its so beautifully made, I cannot bear to just
throw it away.
To be continued ……………
Andy Sharpe
