Easter update

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!!

Clear evidence of anti nest building

This is getting blatant. And it's not an isolated incident :(

"Stealing" material?!

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.

Keep watching...

We are.

2013 is a whole new year...

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.

Not much action to report...

After some disturbingly quiet days, with nothing captured at the weekend, and only a brief glimpse of a Blue Tit perched on the hole at breakfast on Tuesday, I was starting to think we'd been abandoned. Plus, there is some serious Blue Tit activity in the ivy on the other side of the garden, and the box is just in front of the shed where the noisiest Blackbirds I've ever heard are getting to know each other. However, at 8:38am today, the camera caught a ten second inspection...

...so fingers crossed we are still on the shortlist.  Although I was not very pleased to see a fat bee exploring the premises...

...or his wasp friend a couple of hours later!


Still a week before the consensus nesting time starts, let's hope for the best!

Looking at the skylight

Later the same day...

...investigations have reached the roof.  The gardenature box has a perspex skylight to let the light in and create the beautiful colour pictures.  If you are a house hunting Blue Tit though, that needs careful investigation! More activity afterwards, so I assume it passed.

Serious house hunting

Unconfirmed reports were saying that more Blue Tits have been showing interest in our box last week, and this morning I caught a brief glimpse of one bird perched on the hole. I set the camera up to shoot ninety minutes of footage to skim through at 8x, and at 9:35am struck gold. The following three minute footage has had about 60 seconds of Blue Tit free time edited out.

I was doing jobs around the house, and didn't see the action until I was whizzing through the replay. I must confess to being very over excited - I think this project is going to work! The presence of the partner bird in the final few seconds of the clip must mean things are getting serious.


According to everything I've read, I think we still have two and a half weeks before they start building the nest. One final point of interest, the first tit on the extended visit can be seen playing close attention to the integrity of the entrance hole. Any birds that use a nest box are vulnerable to a woodpecker or squirrel enlarging the holed to get the young out. Rest assured our box has had a metal plate screwed on the outside - any Blue Tit family will be safe from that threat at least!