6th May
Unfortunately, the female did not return last night to cover her chicks, and looking at the cameras this morning, all the chicks have passed away. The male is still about bringing back food and is obviously a bit confused and it is very sad to watch as he tries to call to his mate and his chicks. We will clear the dead chicks out and see if anything happens but it may be the end for Box 1 this year.
We are still keeping watch on all the garden birds and the Live Streaming cameras will be back online shortly
3rd May
Well, most of the eggs have hatched in Box 1 and we think that there are 9 or 10 chicks but we can’t be sure as it is very hard to see! If you have an idea or have seen it clearly on the webcams let us know!!! If you could give a time and date as well we may be able to find some video. Both parents have been very busy bringing in small grubs and insects to feed their hungry chicks. It is very interesting watching this end both of the camera angles as you can see clearly from the side camera the parents feeding the chicks.
1st May
The eggs have started hatching today! At 4.28 this afternoon, the first chick hatched. The female spent quite a while mothering the chick and eating the egg shell. A little while later, at 5.48pm, there was more egg shell eating by the female and the second chick hatched! We will keep an eye out for more hatchings!
21st April
The female Blue Tit has been in Box 1 for most of today. However, during one of her occasional trips out to stretch her wings, we had a look at the nest and counted 12 eggs! This is a record number for Box 1 as there was only 8 last year and 11 before that. The male has been very busy finding more food from around the garden and the surrounding area to bring to the female, sitting on the eggs in Box 1.
20th April
Well we were wrong about the eggs as there are two more now making the total 11 in Box 1. The female is now incubating the eggs and has been seen in the box for most of the day, leaving every now and then for a little stretch! The male has been around a lot in the garden bringing in food for the female ranging from food from the feeders to small bugs found in the trees and bushes around!
18th April
There are currently 9 eggs in Box 1 and we think that is the final amount as the female Blue Tit was in the nest today tidying up and the eggs are now clearly visible. She has also been turning the eggs and sitting on them a lot today. We have a couple of pictures below and we will update them when we get some more!
15th April
Sorry for the lack of updates at the moment. It has been a very busy week and there hasn’t been much time to update the website! We have also had a couple of problems with the camera lighting in Box 1. The white LED’s that provide the colour enhancement during the day started to flicker and looked as if they were going to give up on us. Therefore, last night whilst the Blue Tit was out, we took down the Box 1 Camera Cover and replaced it with the Box 2 Camera cover with the Black and White camera in whilst we fixed the other one. This at least let us know when the bird was in the box or not! Now, the lights have been changed and the problem solved and the box lid went back up this morning.
Yesterday we saw 5 eggs in the box but we are having trouble at the moment seeing if there is a 6th one this morning as the Blue Tit really covers her eggs with nesting material so they are not on show. We will check later as we have the proper cameras back in the box and will update this page a bit later!
10th April
We have our first egg in box 1 this year! Looking at the computer this morning, we saw a small speckled white blob at the bottom of the nest and we first thought it was a feather but after closer inspection, it is an egg! This is 20 days earlier than 2006 and 10 days earlier than 2005. This could be to do with the warmer climates now as the blue tits do time their egg hatching to coincide with caterpillars and bugs being available.
8th April
The Blue Tits have eased off with the nesting material at the moment, giving the impression that the nest is more or less finished. However, they are still about and we have seen one blue tit taking a look at the mealworm feeder we have put back up in the garden. This is good news because it should hopefully mean that when they have their young, they know there will be a supply of food available to them, providing of course that the sparrows don’t invade the feeder as they did last year!!
4th April
A nice sunny day today but with a chilly wind meant that we were not in the garden as much allowing the Blue Tits to bring in more nesting material. They are bringing in some sort of hair and feathers, making the main nest cup very soft! The female Blue Tit was seen sorting out the main nest, spending a lot of time in the middle, checking and sorting out the material around, making sure that it is suitable. Later on, at 7.15pm, the female Blue Tit came in and settled down and looked as if she went to sleep and we thought our rooster was back, but a quarter an hour later, she woke up and left the nest. However, at 7.44pm, she came back in and settled down for the night.
3rd April
Not as much activity today in Box 1, but the Blue Tits have still been seen bringing in nesting material. The pair were seen early this morning at around 6.10am pecking at the hole of the box and eventually started bringing in material about 30 minutes later. The rate of material coming in is a lot slower now and they are obviously being more selective about what material is brought into the box as they do not take out half as much as they did a few days ago
28th March
There is continued Nest Building in Box 1 today as both birds continue to bring in lots of material from the garden. Both the male and the female often sit on the bird box wires outside box 1 and check before they enter with their beak full of moss, checking that no-one (except the cameras!!) is watching. There is quite a definite shape to the nest now and the nest cup can be seen right at the back of the box in the centre. Last year, the nest cup was a bit further forward but we are not sure if these birds are related to last year in any way!
27th March
Nest Building started today at 9.10 this morning, a day earlier than last year. Both the male and the female have been seen bringing in moss nesting material which they are finding from our lawn! By the end of the day, they had both brought in a significant amount of material and started sorting through, picking out bits they weren’t happy with! We hope all goes well and they finish the nest in the next few days!
20th March 2007
There hasn’t been a lot of activity in the boxes today, but at 9.56 this morning, the male blue tit was seen in Bird Box 1 pecking the hole from both inside and outside, then a few minutes later, the female appeared and they did a very brief changeover. The female was then inside for a few more minutes, checking all the corners of the box, and doing a few nesting shuffles, before leaving when the male appeared on the outside.
7th March
There is still lots of interest in Bird Box 1. A pair of Blue Tits have been seen around the nest box but only ever one goes in at a time! They seem to be house hunting though as they have been seen looking at other boxes in the garden! Box 4 is currently getting more interest but we hope something nests in Box 1 this year!
17th February
At present, we have lost our Blue Tit rooster in Bird Box 1 but hope he/she will be back soon as it has been seen checking out the box every morning around 9 o’clock! The day after we cleared out the box and changed the camera inside was the last time the blue tit roosted but we hope it is only temporary and it will be back soon!
13th February
We cleared out the Blue Tit box today as the nest was getting a bit contaminated with waste! We have also made some additions to the the cameras and lighting in the box so we should get the best pictures yet hopefully! The Technical section of the website has now been updated with new sample videos, photos and information.
24th January
The Blue Tit is still roosting in the box, as he/she has been for many months now. There are some small problems with the lighting in this bird box at the moment, but we hope to fix it this weekend. The bird leaves at around 7.30 every morning and return at around 4.30. So far, there haven’t been many visits during the day