After twenty-four hours of agony accompanied by Kath providing copious quantities of worms and porridge, Micro fledged to join his brothers and sisters in the big wide world. Possible video to follow - this is being posted from Spain!
Nine eggs, seven hatched, six grew, six fledged. Result!
So it has happened...the nest box almost emptied in an afternoon of excitement.
Tufty was first, as predicted long ago...
A bit of a gap before number two plucked up courage, very much encouraged by the parent refusing to hand the grub over...
And then a very long video of numbers three, four and five making a bid for freedom...
Lara managed to capture one of these three leaving - this is iPhone footage, so excuse the quality, but right near the end of the clip someone flies from the nest box on the right to the bush on the left. Great work, even if the camerawoman was trembling with excitement!
Here's still from the video with a head and shoulders sticking out...
Which just leaves "Micro", spending the night alone in the now spacious box. He made a big effort to fly to the exit hole, but just isn't strong enough yet - there was almost two days between the first and last eggs hatching. Both parents have been in to feed him this evening, and we have stepped up the live food again to make it easy for them, so we are hopeful he will gain the necessary strength. Stay tuned...
2nd June, we've still got six healthy chicks, including a huge one the girls have called "Tufty". A family of Great Tits have fledged their chicks over the weekend, and judging by the footage here, our Blue Tits cannot be far behind..
Some footage from a few days later, 31st May. The weather has been pretty miserable, and the parents were struggling to feed the chicks. We have therefore bought tons of waxworms, and have been trying to devise clever ways of restricting them to the small birds, i.e. not Magpies! Here's some action of small (but growing) birds struggling to eat juicy morsels!
This was also the first day that the mother didn't roost in the box since the end of March. She's been squeezed out by her expanding family!
Sorry for the radio silence. Been very busy, not least sourcing waxworms from Pets at Home down the A3 (apologies to all the New Malden based lizards who have had to stick to more mundane food whilst my brood ate their treats).
Firstly, a clip from the 25th May. Here you can see the sun shining (a rare event in these characters lives so far), and both parents are finding bugs from the garden. Also, if you watch to the end, you see one of the chicks present their rear to the adult to have a faecal sac removed. Enjoy...
Initially there were seven chicks (and two unhatched eggs). The smallest chick lasted about three days, but we didn't see it removed. The other six all seem to be doing well.
A lazy, unedited video of the action today. Both birds doing a terrific job of feeding the seven chicks. Two unhatched eggs can be glimpsed under the hatchlings - I suspect these won't make it now the mother is busy hunting for caterpillars...
First egg hatched morning of 14th May. We've got snippets of video, but no time right now to curate. Here are some snapshots. Firstly, one of two brand new chicks...
Secondly, the proud parents bringing some food...
And finally, a shot from today, with the classic gaping mouth shot...
They are proving much harder to count than I thought - hopefully that will get easier as they get bigger. We think there are six at the moment, and I am not sure whether that leaves some eggs missing in action.
A couple of short videos today. Firstly, our male is bringing his mate the occasional morsel of food. Apparently that is the best the nesting female can hope for, and is a good sign that he will do his bit when the chicks need feeding...
Even when he's not bringing her food himself, he is still on duty - she calls and he guards the nest whilst she's out feeding. This video shows that, although hearing his voice requires focus as the microphone is inside the box. He's looking after though, which crucially means he is not raising another family on the side!
Bluey has been sitting on her eggs for a few days now, eating only briefly to feed at odd intervals. The male is in evidence, but we've only once seen him bring her food. He is guarding the area whilst she nips out though. With our feeders still in place, it isn't taking her very long to get topped up.
We think the clutch size is nine, although she keeps hiding the eggs when she goes out, with just a few on show. If they all hatch we'll know how many eggs there were - you can't hide a hungry chick!
So much for one egg a day. Like the proverbial bus, you wait around over a year for an egg to appear, then three tun up at once...
You can imagine the excitement that they caused!
She is roosting on top of them tonight - I thought she might stay away until the clutch was complete and she started incubating them. However, they are laid on the bare floor, so maybe that will keep them cool for now? We are learning day by day...
Little to report. All in order - both birds visiting regularly, female still roosting and still finessing the nest. Male seems very attentive despite his scruffy appearance, so we are still hopeful he will pull his weight.
We are worried about the volume of food available in the garden (10 chicks x 100 caterpillars per day per chick), and are looking at options to provide fresh wax worms. Sounds delicious!
Here is a quick snap of the increasingly fluffy nest...
Firstly a very big welcome to any girls from Putney High junior school who have logged on to see how our nest box is coming along. If our Blue Tit lays eggs and they hatch I will be coming into an assembly to show you some clips and tell you what I have learnt about these amazing birds. I'm looking forward to that very much.
Secondly, a regular viewer from Sheffield asked a question I meant to answer the other day but forgot. What was the bird doing pecking so much a few days ago - she appears to want to become a woodpecker?! The answer is she is drilling out any soft wood to check that the box she has chosen is sound. Blue Tit nests are very vulnerable to Jays, squirrels, weasels and other predators, and that is all part of the prospecting process.
Our first video clips today is from very early this morning. Our roosting female has been hard at it building the nest for the last few days and wants a lie in. The male however is ready to start the day at 5:30am. He was caught having just paid a visit, and moves outside to serenade her. Several minutes later (don't worry, I've edited them out) he's still sticking his head in to try and get her up. She is having none of it...
And to finish, a slow motion clip (half speed) of some nest building action. I have slowed it down so you can see the material she is bringing in. Some more fascinating behaviour I've not seen before - she is jumping up and down on the nest. Is she knocking it into shape, or just bouncing on the bed for fun?!
Well, I now feel guilty for ever doubting her. She's put in the hardest days work of her short life, and went straight to sleep this evening. Here is a brief clip of building in action to show progress...
She's got the hang of it now, and what a beautiful day for it! Just a short clip (at 4x speed) taken about 16:20 to show where she has got to. Looking good...
So, Saturday afternoon - the rain is now tipping down, and every sensible Blue Tit in SW London is sheltering somewhere else. However, lots to report, and the signs are looking good...
Firstly, she is still roosting every night. We thought once it got warmer she might stop, but she has come in every night for the last two weeks. She is getting slightly later each evening, and makes frequent trips in and out before settling down. I won't waste your bandwidth - the videos below are completely typical.
Secondly, we are now Blue Tit experts, having devoured the excellent British Tits by Christopher Perrins. I think it is out of print, but Amazon sell a Kindle version, and it is compulsive reading. Best of all it explains a number of things we have seen - starting with the fact that the female roosts in the nest box for a couple of weeks prior to nesting!
One other behavioural feature Perrins describes is the way the female rubs her stomach on the floor and pushes the nesting material to the side with her feet. Perfectly demonstrated in today's nest building clip:
And yes, that is firstly a shed load of nesting material you see, and secondly it is quite different in nature from the pieces of moss she has been taking in and out for the last week or so.
We have concluded that we have new Blue Tits - this is their first breeding season, and they are having to work everything out from first principles. They appear to be getting the hang of it though, and they are around for big chunks of the day.
Finally, our nest box is now part of a real scientific survey. The British Trust for Ornithology have a nest box survey, and we are contributing daily data. Anyone can help, so if you have a box, here is the link...
Lots of activity over the last few days, although this evening the box is still completely empty of nesting material. It was much warmer today (as high as 10 degrees C!), and at a mid morning check we saw plenty of material.
However, immediately after (and just like every other day), over the next hour every scrap of moss was removed. Here is the action with the dull bits edited out and speeded up to crack through an hour in three and a half minutes...
But better news a) they are still interested (that drumming action is either a wannabe woodpecker or serious prospecting), b) they aren't taking the material anywhere else, just dropping it outside the box, and c) I have found this blog which describes very similar behaviour last year.
The entry for 9th April shows material being taken out and by 12th proper building was in progress. Although the blog stops abruptly after Dad had stopped showing up, they at least got to the hatching stage.
And finally, we are still providing overnight accommodation for the eighth night in a row. Slightly later tonight, settling down about 19:20. Here's some more rapid play footage (guess what I learned on iMovie today).
Thanks to those clever people at logmein.com we have managed to get a fair amount of footage during the Easter break despite being in Sheffield. Lot's of depressing footage of grand larceny, with what looks like competing Blue Tits - one pretty incompetent one making half hearted attempts to stockpile moss, the other stealing it away.
But, that aside, we now have an overnight lodger!
This is the third night that the box is occupied by a roosting Blue Tit, and better still, look at this odd behaviour we captured tonight...
Our black-splotches-on-his-cheek pops in, checks everything is all right, before summoning his mate. Twenty seconds later, in she comes, and gets ready to settle down for the night.
She spent about four of five minutes shuffling round, obviously slowing down, before doing that amazing thing Blue Tits do to keep warm at night - blow themselves up. Apologies for the longish clip, but she starts underneath, with her downy feathers expanding to trap air, before inflating her back feathers and sticking her head under her wing. Nifty to say the least...
It is now April, and if these characters don't get on with it very soon, we are going to draw a blank this year too. Roosting is a good start though - we are still hoping for some nest building action!!
We've had plenty of sightings of Blue Tits going in and out of the box, but a very modest (i.e. virtually no) addition of material to what should become the nest. And now this...
I may be being paranoid, but is that a tiny piece of moss she's actually removing from the nest?!
Nest building is normally the first couple of weeks of April, and given the near zero temperatures there is every possibility it could even be slightly later. Starting to worry this might be another false start though.
So regular readers will have have deduced that we drew a blank in 2012. I was worried that with a poor summer for Blue Tits, we might struggle to attract tenants this year as well, but I have now seen enough positive signs to warrant a post.
In the last week of February we saw Blue Tits entering and leaving the box, but weren't quick enough to snag any video. Then on 3rd March, we had a double visitation - note the two birds, one with a black dot on (his I think) cheeks, the other with cleaner white patches.
Also, notice how clean the box is. Just the dead spider and a bit of dust. That is important, because look at this!
The white cheeked bird today, 17th March, testing the box is sound by tapping it with her bill. She also appears to be testing the space by spreading her wings to check she could cover her clutch (the reason I think this one is the female). And look! A straggly bit of moss, and some other wispy things (possibly from the Fiesta Nester) can only be one thing. Nesting material!
Black spot is still around too. Although he will ultimately do nothing to help build the nest, he is still happy to help with the house hunting. Here he was earlier today.
We are in a state of high excitement here - will 2013 be the year? We'll keep you posted.
