Bluetit Diary    May 2001 (1)

We now have seven eggs.  It has been another cold, wet day (maximum temperature 8.2°C) and the eggs have been fully covered with a layer of down and feathers for most of it.  However, for a short time this evening, as the bird was tidying the nest, she left them fully exposed.  They were neatly arranged with six round the outside and one in the middle as shown.

As she was coming and going, doing her usual evening wind down programme, the male popped in with a small present in his beak.  You can just see it in the picture which is of the male.  Unfortunately, the female was not present and after a few moments in which he appeared puzzled, he left.  She came back for the last time soon after, but unless he had fed her outside, it was too late.  The male did not come again.

Another egg this morning brings the total so far to eight!  I'm not sure whether there will be any more as incubation has started.  Time will tell. At about 10 o'clock, we noticed that she had come back into the nest box again; and this time she stayed there.  She even managed to persuade her partner to bring her some grub(s)!  (I saw him feed her three times just before lunchtime.)

I have constructed a mealworm feeder just for bluetits out of a peanut feeder that we were currently not using, and have hung it from the pergola at the bottom of the garden.  A solitary bluetit has been in to get a mealworm when our bird had briefly left the nest, but although I think it was our bird, I did not see her return to the nest.  The feeder consists of an eight inch cube made out of a one inch wire mesh.  On each face, four of the square holes have been enlarged to become roughly 1¼ in diameter holes, thereby letting in bluetits but not much else.  Originally, this cube just contained a smaller mesh container for peanuts.  All I have done is to lay a bowl of mealworms on the bottom of the cage leaving the inner peanut container untouched.  We shall see how successful it becomes.

No new egg today.  The nest still has only the eight eggs.  Worryingly, this has been obvious for much of the time as our female has quite frequently left the nest, sometimes for considerable periods.  Also there has been no sign of the male.  Is this normal at the start of incubation?  Surprisingly, the mealworms are not disappearing very fast either.  I hope daddy has not done a flit or been caught by a cat!