Bluetit Diary    Jun 2002 (1)

 

 

Saturday 1st June, 2002

This is the day we think could be departure day.  I put a timer switch on the camera, and set the video recorder, in case they did a dawn break, but they are still with us at noon.   The birds are very restless, with lots of preening activity and occasional bouts of violent wing flapping.  It's a beautiful day - quite breezy, but with a clear blue sky and bright sunshine - just right for a maiden flight (apart from the fact that 2 magpies have been seen in the garden on several occasions).  One chick actually hopped up to the hole, staying there for a few seconds, before scuttling back, and retreating firmly into the nest cup, apparently overcome by his daring.  Another chick picked a small piece of dried moss from the nest, and held it in its beak for a while - a comfort blanket?

The activity increases - at one time 6 chicks were all preening violently, and occasionally a little face could be seen underneath them, in the nest cup.  This sort of behaviour was seen last year.  Then the activity in the box increased from about 3pm, the first bird left at 5pm - and it was all over by 5.30pm.

This year it is a different story.  One chick went up to the hole, and was looking out when a parent came, and fed the chick at the hole. Another time, a parent pushed past a chick to feed the others. Shortly after this was written, a chick went up to the hole, looked out for a while - and much to our, and its(?), surprise, flew. This was at 12.25pm. This must have been the bird we called Boss yesterday.  He was so much more self confident and aggressive than the rest.  We thought the others would follow quickly, but at 5 past 1 they were all still in the box.

It is now 20 to 5 in the afternoon, and still we are waiting. The chicks alternate between periods of rest, when they cuddle close together in the nest cup, and bouts of frenzied preening, wing stretching and occasional violent wing flapping. The parents are continuing to supply plenty of food, assisted some of the time by our offerings from the mealworm feeder.

"Where did he go?"

Finally, at a quarter to 6 a second chick left the box.

"No - you go next!"

Unusually, we saw it fly away from the box and cling clumsily to a branch just outside.  A few minutes later it was off again and vanished among the foliage.  We had thought it would be too late, and that they would all stay another night. Now at 7pm, it does look as though the last 5 will stay.  Here they can be seen huddled together near the front wall of the box.

"Is that the way out? ... "

Here they are considering a possible return to the safety of the nest cup.

" ... and then there were four!"

Having assumed that was it for the night, we set about getting something to eat.  A great mistake as we missed seeing the third one depart.  It must have been about 5 to 8 - will any more go? A parent is certainly still trying to coax them out.

So these four will presumably stay one more night in the box.  We will set the recorder to start first thing in the morning and hope that we record them even if we are not awake to see them!