Bluetit Diary    Jan 2002 (1)

 

   A new year and a new box

 

 

Friday 18th January, 2002

Today I installed a second bluetit nest box equipped with its own video camera, this time in the front garden.  It is in an old silver birch tree, right next door to an oak tree, so there should be plenty of the right sort of food available when required. The box is replacing a "Woodcrete" box that we have had up there for several years, and which is usually occupied during the nesting season.  Last year a brood was successfully reared there and these chicks flew the nest a few days after those in our main box.

Last year we had a problem in that one of the tits started roosting in the area at the top of the box next to the camera.  We presume she found it warm and cosy up there.  A short while later she found the cables leading to the camera and started pecking at them.  Fearing that they would get damaged, I inserted a small sheet of glass, preventing the bird's access to the top.  The picture alongside shows the relevant parts of the tit box. The bird was getting up through the round hole in the plywood panel at the top of the box where the gap between the panel and the camera support with the box closed is about an inch.

This solution was initially quite satisfactory.  However, as time passed, the glass plate became dusty and the quality of the pictures suffered.  This was particularly true near the end of their stay as the young chicks frequently exercised their wings by flapping furiously inside the box and this stirred up even more dust and dirt.

This year I have made an open ended cardboard cylinder that fits exactly into the circular hole. Its bottom end is glued to the bit of plywood with the hole. Its top end rests against the piece of wood that you can see in the picture that is supporting the camera. The bird therefore cannot get up to the attic, but the camera's view of the nest is not affected.  We hope that this will solve the problem.

 

 

Monday 21st January, 2002

This morning, as Elizabeth looked out of the landing window, she saw a blue tit on a branch near the box.. A few minutes later it was on the box, clinging to the edge of the hole. We turned on the TV and video recorder, so that we could see the inside of the box in the sitting room, but it did not oblige by going in. Our first box has not yet been put back in the hornbeam tree, as we have arranged to have some work done on it to reduce the shade it casts over most of the garden in the afternoons. The work should be completed shortly at which point the nest box can be put back.

 

 

Saturday 26th January, 2002

The first box (to be known as Box1) was replaced in its original home today.  We hope the birds will not be too disturbed by the new appearance of the hornbeam, which has been considerably reduced.