Bluetit Diary    Apr 2002 (1)

For the last 6 days we have been away in Burgundy and have often wondered how our birds were getting on.  When we planned the visit we had considered when the first egg might be laid and expected that we would probably be back before this happened.  However, I was worried about this, as the nest in Box2 was clearly ready, having been lined with what looked like some fine woollen material.  We were late getting home last night, thanks to a Customs strike in France, so we had to resist the temptation to switch on the cameras after dark.  However as soon as Elizabeth awoke, she went to see what progress had been made - and found two eggs there!  Today, at 8am it is only 5.6°C, and it went down to 3.2°C last night, so we hope our bird has not started too soon.  We are also keeping a close eye on the state of the oak tree which grows alongside the nest box.  The photo shows that there is still no sign of any foliage.  (The foliage in the background belongs to a silver birch tree.)

No sign of leaf on the oak tree yet!

(The greenery in this picture is from an ivy covered silver birch tree behind!)

We had hoped to see a third egg in Box2, but we were disappointed. We hope our bird has not made a false start - last night the temperature went down to 0.2°C and at 10am it is still only 4.9°C.

Box1 remains in an untidy state with the egg cup well to the back of the nest.  The base of the box can still just be seen, though the depth of bedding is 6cm at the side. Bird1 does not seem to be very house-proud, compared with Bird2, who has built such a neat little nest.

Yesterday I was carrying a ladder along the passage at the side of the house so that I could take a close-up photograph of the oak tree near Box2. I noticed some leaves in an open fronted box we installed 3 or 4 years ago in the hedge near the back gate. We have never had a nest in there, though one was started a couple of years ago. I peered into the box - and saw a robin staring back at me! She was tucked well down into the nest - the box is about 5 feet above the ground, and you have to get really close to look down into it. The hedge is very old, and consists mainly of holly, with a couple of silver birches, some hawthorn and ivy, and at that point is about 15 feet high.

Later that day we heard a bird making "feed me" calls in the hedge, so we put out some mealworms in a dish on the dustbin. Shortly after, a robin came and ate a couple, then took one into the hedge. We thought it might be going to feed its partner, but it swallowed the mealworm itself! Then along came a bluetit, which took one, and promptly went into the hedge to feed its mate. As we watched from the kitchen window, it repeated the performance. This point is only about 8 yards along the passageway from Box2, so it is probable that this is our Box2 pair, though we have no way of checking this at the moment.

"Don't count your chickens...............!".

It looks as if Bird2 has made a false start - there are still only 2 eggs in the nest, which means a gap of at least 2 days, since we do not know when these two were laid.  Last year once egg laying started, it was one a day until the clutch was complete.  We are still seeing a pair in the hedge, and the female is being fed when we put out mealworms.

A third egg!  Elizabeth saw it first thing when she got up but by the time I had come downstairs it had been covered with fluff and lambs wool.  Is it a figment of the imagination?

Later, I was able to take this picture in which the three eggs can just about be seen.

Well, as you can see, another egg!  It does not seem much warmer to us but something must be telling Bird2 that the time is ripe.  (The minimum temperature last night was 0.3°C).

The photograph on the left shows the bottom corner of our garden, and if you look very carefully you might just be able to see Box1 at the left, and the "bed and breakfast" provision at the right. (If you click on the picture you will get a larger version).

This gives a close up view of the bedding container and the mealworm feeder.

Five eggs now in Box2, though one is partially hidden by the latest one.  Bird1 is still keeping us waiting - but the minimum temperature last night was 3.2°C, so perhaps that will encourage her.

Later.  It's bedtime and time for lights out!  Bird1 now appears to be roosting regularly in her box again.  Perhaps she will start laying soon.  Warmer weather would be a help!

Bird2 is also settling down for the night.

Another dry day, though this time with a fair amount of cloud.  We had a frost last night, the minimum temperature Elizabeth recorded was -0.3°C.

We have another egg in Box2.  When I looked at the nest at about 8 o'clock, the light from outside was illuminating all 6 eggs and you could clearly see their reddish speckles.  Disappointingly, there is still no egg in Box1.

By 7.45 in the evening Bird2 had been in the box for about half an hour, though she has not settled down for the night yet. Bird1 has only just come in - we thought she might be planning a night on the town, before starting maternal duties, but it looks as if she is settling down for the night now.

Although last night was much warmer (4.3°C minimum) Box1 still has no eggs, and Bird2 did not lay an egg last night - rather worrying, since the last 4 were laid after a break of at least 2 days.  Perhaps this could be a normal pattern of events, and we were wrong to assume that it would be like last year, when 9 eggs were laid regularly at one a day.

I have installed some new software from i-Catcher, which detects any movement in the nest, and takes a photograph when triggered.  Now we will not have to rush into the study to take a photograph when we are aware of any event that is worth capturing.  A few photographs (from a large number of "possibles") are shown here.  The first is of Bird2 (perhaps we should name them; Bird1 and Bird2 sounds so impersonal) as she came into the nest for the last time before settling down for the night.

The second is of Bird1 who is just checking that nothing has changed.

The final picture shows both tits in the box at the same time.  The male enters first, and the female followed him soon after.  After a few seconds, the male leaves, so the female does a few nesting wriggles to make herself feel comfortable and then leaves the box herself.

It was just another pause.  Bird 2 has come up trumps with another egg, presumably laid in the early hours.  Certainly it was there when we got up at a leisurely 8 o'clock this morning.  At this hour the light fills the box with a warm glow.  A bit later in the day, the sunlight through the box's entry hole creates a patch of brightness that makes it difficult to take pictures.  You can see what we mean in the picture, but we thought it was too good to exclude.  Perhaps the lesson is get up earlier!  It was just another pause.  Bird 2 has come up trumps with another egg, presumably laid in the early hours.  Certainly it was there when we got up at a leisurely 8 o'clock this morning.  At this hour the light fills the box with a warm glow.  A bit later in the day, the sunlight through the box's entry hole creates a patch of brightness that makes it difficult to take pictures.  You can see what we mean in the picture, but we thought it was too good to exclude.  Perhaps the lesson is to get up earlier!

Today was our first full day using the i-Catcher software and this meant that we no longer missed any interesting events - unless we happened to be tuned in to the wrong box at the time!  Most of the day we have been looking at Box1.  The female appears to come in once or twice an hour.

Sometimes the male follows shortly after with a food offering in his beak.  This she graciously accepts; sometimes she eats it, but sometimes she flies out of the nest with it.

Around lunch time a bluebottle found its way into the nestbox.  It spent much time wandering about as flies do (duly recorded, I must turn down the sensitivity control!), before disappearing when the female came into the box.

The final feed of the day took place at 7.30pm when it was beginning to get dark.  If this female ever does produce eggs, she will not have the problem of a lazy mate!

The eighth egg was delivered on schedule by Bird2 and even though Elizabeth was up early as she was going out, we were far too late to see the action.  However, Box1 is still empty although, judging from yesterday's activities, the male is still being extremely solicitous.  

An egg in Box1! Still, we shouldn't complain, a start has been made. It was 25^th April before an egg was laid last year. However, there is definitely something odd going on in Box2.

Early yesterday, the eighth egg was laid, but for the rest of the day there was no sight or sound of either male or female bluetit. For the first time for many days the nest was empty overnight and as a result, there were still only eight eggs in it this morning. Still, you could see that a bird had been there because the eggs had been partly covered up overnight.

As time passed this morning, the birds in Box2 became more active, but what was going on was not clear.  It appears to be a mixture of lack of interest by the female and a possible takeover of the nest box by another bird.  There have been several incidents when another bird enters when one is already inside and the inside bird does not look at all welcoming.  (The colour cast on the image is because there is another bird in the entrance and the camera has not yet had time to adjust.)

Then at other times a bird enters and keeps looking around in an apprehensive way. Is this the male wondering why his eggs are not being incubated or a foreigner worried that the true occupiers may return?

A typical sequence of events is: first one bird enters an empty box and does nothing but look around anxiously, spending most of its time stretching up to look out of the entrance hole. It sometimes hops onto the hole and has a long look outside before going back in. Frequently it will be calling while inside. Sometimes a second bird comes in which causes the first to leave instantly. The second bird acts much more proprietarily about the eggs, mothering them and doing the odd nesting wriggle (they must be tough!). However, she doesn't stay long and soon the box is empty again.

A second egg in Box1, but nothing changed in Box2. The odd behaviour of the Box2 birds is still continuing and we are becoming more convinced that some sort of battle is being waged for the box. While I was watching the outside of the box from the landing window there was a kerfuffle in the oak tree next to the box in which three bluetits appeared to be having a fight. It only lasted a couple of seconds before a bird flew off. However, there is still no sign of any bird sitting on the eggs.

It's now 18.00hrs and the pattern of events during the day has been the same. There are two types of happenings. First a bird, which we presume to be a male, enters the box. He looks around anxiously, frequently spending some time on the entrance looking out. He does not sit on the eggs although he often stands over them. Sometimes he makes noises as though there was a fight going on, sometimes just plaintive calling noises, and then he leaves. The total time spent in the box is typically 1 or 2 minutes.

The other scenario is that one bird enters the box. Shortly after another bird enters upon which the first one immediately flees often accompanied by aggressive looking behaviour from the second. This bird then goes into a frenzy of female type behaviour, sitting on the eggs, looking beneath them and doing nesting wriggles over them. However, she does not stay but after a couple of minutes, she too departs.

In the middle of everything that is going on she does a spot of spring cleaning!

In the meanwhile, there are still eight eggs and nobody is brooding them.  Let's hope for better things tomorrow.

At least Bird1 is behaving herself at the moment.  We now have a third egg in Box1.

There is no change in Box2's status, unfortunately.  However, to look on the bright side, at least the female is still interested in the eggs, even if she is not incubating them.

It is now 21.30 and as in the pattern of the last few days, Bird1 is roosting in her box but the eggs in Box2 are bare.  During the day the female has still appeared to take an interest in her eggs, in fact with i-Catcher's help we can see that she visits the nest regularly throughout the day.  There was only one gap in the record; from 15.32 until 17.44 the nest was not visited by any bird.

As usual, the activities in Box2 continue to puzzle us. The female has been coming and going regularly throughout the day, bringing in more nesting material (usually much coarser stuff than before), and doing violent nesting wriggles, pushing very firmly against the walls of the nest, to widen the nest cup. It is surprising that the eggs can withstand this treatment. We are still wondering if two different females have been involved.

If anyone reading this has experienced anything similar, or has any thoughts about what is going on - please leave a message on our Feedback page!

Little news of our birds today.  It has been suggested that we should name our birds and since the only one that we can be sure of is the female in Box1, I have decided to call her Beauty.  She has covered up her eggs so it is impossible to see how many there are.  It should be 5, but we couldn't see enough to count accurately yesterday either.  Perhaps we will be able to see later.

The Box2 birds, (how many? - of what sex?) have been busy doing nothing this morning as usual.  It may be very energetic, but it is not very productive.

First of all, Elizabeth wishes to disassociate herself from the practice of giving names to birds.  Calling them Bird1 and Bird2 is not particularly attractive, but "Beauty"!!!  No further comment!

The situation in Box2 has not changed much.  We were using i-Catcher in motion sensing mode most of the morning, and the female could be seen coming in every few minutes, with the occasional longer gap, to fuss over the eggs.  She still sometimes brings in more bedding material, but the eggs are not significantly covered.  We are wondering if the battle for the box has been won by this female but she can't work out what to do about the eggs.  On one occasion, her partner followed her in and gave her a mealworm offering. This picture shows this.

Bird1 (known by me as Beauty) has been resting in her box for a long time today, and has been seen receiving food from her mate on several occasions.  This picture shows one of these, followed by a rather nice picture of the happy couple.  We still have not been able to see how many eggs she has, but towards the end of the afternoon when she left the nest for some time, we saw a ring of black feathers inside the nest cup.  There are also a few black feathers in Box2.  We are wondering what unfortunate bird has provided these soft furnishings - we have regular visits from male blackbirds, and sometimes group visits from jackdaws.  Perhaps a cat got one of these or a freshly fledged blackbird chick.

The happy couple!

We did not write anything yesterday, as there was nothing new to be said.  We can only see 3 eggs in Box1, so one has been buried since we saw a total of 4 earlier in the week.  The bird still visits, and we have seen the male coming in and feeding her, but she has stopped laying eggs and does not seem inclined to start incubating yet.  We have seen bird 2 being fed in her box too.  We have more or less given up hope of any robin chicks too, as hatching is well overdue, unless we have not understood robin behaviour.

Later - at 5.15pm: Great excitement. I went past the robin box, and noticing that the hen was not sitting, peered into the nest - and saw a gaping little beak stretching straight up!  I rushed in to Elizabeth in the study to tell her the good news, and about 10 minutes later she went to look too, but by this time the female was back on the nest.

Yesterday evening, when I went out to inspect the pond, which was enlarged this February, I saw a frog on the paving stones nearby. I took out some mealworms, and put them a few inches away - these were greedily accepted! We thought that maybe we should switch our attention to amphibians, since our birds were not responding as we expected.

Later we managed to get a photograph of a frog, and another (rather murky picture) of one of the many newts still in the pond. When the pond was enlarged, we unfortunately disturbed a large number of frogs, and now have few left, but with the improved facilities we are sure they will be back next year.

The day ends with another bit of good news.  Box2, which has eight eggs all laid over a week ago, looked like this at dusk.  Could this be a new egg laid in the middle of the day?  To add credence to this theory, Bird2, (Battler?) has roosted there tonight, the first time this box has been occupied at night for a very long time.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Today has not been a good day for our birds.  It has been a wet, wild and windy day and they have visited their nests very little, probably as a result.  The eggs in Box2 have all been mixed up again with no apparent evidence that the single egg shown above was a new one.  Hope springs eternal....!

Our robin's nest has been busy and I have been trying to find a way of recording the activity around it.  Moving our test PC to the kitchen and linking our video camera to it has produced some pictures but the nest box has been in dappled sunshine most of the afternoon and as a result, successful pictures of the robins coming to feed their brood have been few and far between.  We don't even know how many chicks are in the nest yet!

There has been little happening today.  At one stage we thought that Beauty was staring to incubate because she came in to the nest early this morning, settled down and had a doze.  Her mate did his bit by coming in several times to feed her but to no avail, after about half an hour she got up and left.

The first time we caught them after starting i-Catcher she took a little wakening....

......but eventually she came to, and took the offering.

Although she was frequently in the box later in the day, she was never there for long, typically less than a minute.

Here's another morsel, and this time the eggs are visible.

At about half past twelve, we switched to Box2 only to find a similarly frustrating situation.  Battler would come in at about 5 minute intervals, fuss the nest about a bit, do a bit of preening - and leave.  Each visit takes about 10 to 20 seconds.  To make it even more depressing, we did not see the male once!

Perhaps there is still hope for Box1. This morning a fifth egg could be seen, and for a while the female settled on the eggs, and we wondered, yet again, if she had decided to start incubating.

Her partner came in several times with food, sometimes rousing her from her slumbers, and things looked promising.  However, some time later she decided she'd had enough, and went out.

Having a nap then?

Are you all right?

Nearly two hours later she returned briefly, and continued this pattern of short visits during the next few hours.  Then she stayed in the box for about 20 minutes during which time the male fed her three times - or tried to!

Come on - wake up.

All right - be like that then.

See if I care!

For the next ½ hour our birds were not monitored, as priority was given to a video of "Fireman Sam" for our human brood.  Later, both birds were seen roosting in their boxes when we finally switched off for the night, although Bird2 had had a final 16 second escape from her duties shortly before.

We were very pleased to see another egg today. The bird was rather restless at first, and did not seem inclined to settle for long, though she did visit regularly. However at about 10.30am she came in and snuggled down for about ¾ of an hour, while the male visited over 10 times with offerings of food - he seems to be working very hard to do his share. The female left for about an hour, before returning, and settling down to receive more feeding visits from the male.

As there was plenty of activity but nothing much to write about this afternoon, we left the webcam running.  Unfortunately, we forgot to turn it off before switching to the infrared camera as dusk was falling, with the result that the webcam now shows a beautiful picture of an empty saucer. 

Later this evening our hedgehog beat the fox to the food bowl.  When Foxie eventually turned up there was precious little left, nevertheless the hedgehog stood its ground and waited for the fox to go away, which it eventually did.

   2-0 to the hedgehog.

The egg total remains at 6 - we are wondering if she will ever settle down to incubate, and even if she does, how many eggs will hatch since the first one was laid on April 18th?