Bluetit Diary    Mar 2001 (2)

The aggressive bird's pecking has become quite intensive.  It has taken to attacking the cables leading to the camera, which it has dragged partially in front of the lens. Clearly, there is a real chance of the cables being damaged. The only way we can think of to resolve this is to prevent the birds′ access to this area by installing a glass blocking plate.  A quick phone call to Boxwatch gives us the dimensions of the required plate. We were distracted from further progress by hearing that our daughter-in-law was about to give birth to our third grandchild about a week early! Jessica Amy was finally born at 22.06hrs.

I have found a glass merchant in Brookwood who cut a piece of plate glass to the required size for a nominal sum, and I've decided that the best time to fit it would be first thing in the morning. This is normally a quiet time in the box and it would also give the birds as long as possible before dusk to become used to the change in their home.

Elizabeth checked that there was no bird obviously inside the box while I brought the ladder and prepared to install the glass plate. While installing the plate, I also made sure that the cable was pushed well out of the way. Considerable damage had already been done to the cable. There were two holes that had been pecked through both its black outer and its copper shielding exposing the white insulation surrounding the inner wire. Next winter, it will probably be best to replace this short length of cable, but it does not seem necessary now, provided we can prevent further damage by the bluetits.

Pecker cannot understand what has happened to its home. Sometimes it clings to the wooden roof that the glass plate rest on and pecks furiously at the glass. At other times it tries to fly through it, falling ignominiously to the floor of the box as a result. Neither bird slept inside the box this night.

We went granddaughter visiting today. She is a beautiful little (9lb!) thing with an apparently equable temperament. On our return, we found to our delight, that there was a bird roosting in the box again. Whether it is Pecker or Bashful is not clear at this stage.

A fine snow fell for most of the day and there was a keen wind.  Again, there was a bird roosting inside the box when we looked at 20.00hrs.

The weather has been so bad recently, cold with almost continual rain, and so there has been no significant activity for the past week.  Some nights one of our pair would roost in the box and some nights it was empty. However today we recorded an apparent dispute about which bird should spend the night in the box.

The recording starts with a bird in the box. It was fidgeting about, pecking at the wall of the box and generally fussing. Finally after about 5 minutes it left the nest. Soon after, the other bird flew in. You could see it was a different bird because the stripe through its eye was less pronounced, particularly directly behind the eye. It also had a more subdued personality, and this it shortly demonstrated. Less than a minute later the first bird came back and the newcomer promptly left! Over the next 10 minutes, this bird kept coming and going and sometimes a plaintive cheep could be heard from outside. Finally the bird tucked its head under its wing and started to go to sleep.

There was one other piece of excitement. We had heard the other bird frequently coming to the hole, sometimes chirruping but leaving without entering. Finally, it plucked up courage to enter the box but could not bring itself to stay and left almost immediately. The bird in residence was disturbed by the invasion, but not seriously and after few moments went back to sleep.

Today is dry and for a change the sun is shining. This has prompted much more interest in the bird box. One of the birds has spent much of the day going in and out and reshuffling the bedding, although not much, if any, new bedding has been brought in. On one occasion, for a brief moment, both birds were in the box together and this time it was a reasonably orderly changeover. They seem to be getting more used to being close to each other, which is just as well if we are to have any chicks this year!