Bluetit Diary    May 2002 (3)

 

 

Saturday 4th May, 2002

The system has been set to webcam mode for most of today, as we have plenty of photographs of incubating birds and I am out all weekend playing in a croquet tournament.  We have usually been showing Box1, with occasional glimpses of Box2, until it was switched to Box2 at 6.30pm.  Unfortunately, although this year we put "depth markings" on the left hand walls of the boxes, it never occurred to us to mark the boxes as 1 and 2.  Box2 is generally cleaner, and the numbers are less bold.  The nest cup is also more centrally positioned and the sitting bird is higher in the cup.  Box1 has more noticeable measuring marks, and on the right hand wall there are two small black dots just above the level of the "bedding material".  We'll remember to number the boxes next time round.

The robins are still working hard to keep the chicks well fed - with occasional help from us.  We have them well trained now (or could it be the other way round)?  When we put mealworms in the dish near the back door, we bang on the dustbin where the bowl is placed, and usually within about 30 seconds they get the message.  They are usually rather wary if they can see us watching them, and do not go directly to the nest from the food supply.  However, Elizabeth has accustomed them to having the back door of the garage left open (right opposite the nest), and on 2 occasions today, having put out mealworms, she retreated to her car, and was able to watch in comfort while the parents ran a shuttle service until the mealworms were all gone.  Sometimes one bird would be in the box, tending the chicks, while the partner was sitting on the fence with the next supply.  The adults were seen removing faecal sacks on several occasions - we wonder if all bird parents perform this service to keep the nest clean - some research is necessary here!

Finally, both Hoggie and Foxie have been for their evening feed.  Hoggie was first again, the fox arriving 10 minutes after (s)he had left having eaten his/her fill.  3-0 to Hoggie!

 

 

Sunday 5th May, 2002

Today we have had the camera on Box2 again and find to our surprise that there are now at least 9 eggs.  Although she leaves the nest more than Beauty, Battler is spending much more time there than she used to.  However, we watched from 17.13 until 19.00 and during that time she left the box empty between 17.34 and 18.23.  In spite of this, her mate is feeding her pretty regularly.  He fed her 9 times in the roughly 50 minutes she was in the box, that is once every 5 minutes.  Perhaps we've given up on her too soon and she is laying some of her own eggs on top of the existing clutch!  Time will tell.

Our robins continue to develop.  According to the robin "bible"  (The Life of the Robin, by David Lack), the time between hatching and fledging is very much the same as for blue tits, namely about 14 days.  We first saw the robin chicks on April  25th, so they hatched then, or maybe a day or so earlier.  This means that by Thursday May 9th we can expect them to fly.  The picture was taken this afternoon  and it is still not clear how many chicks there are.  (Some imagination is needed to decide that this might show robin chicks.  The white bits are in fact the edges of their gapes when their beaks are closed.  The chicks' eyes are black and directly above them).  Is that a fourth chick on the left at the back?  (If you click on the picture, you get a bigger version.)

 

 

Monday 6th May, 2002

Battler  looks as though she is laying her own clutch on top of the existing eggs!  i-Catcher was in webcam mode today, so we don't have a picture to show you, but at 1 pm Elizabeth noticed that there were now definitely 10 eggs in Box2.   Perhaps Battler will end up with chicks after all.  Her pattern of comings and goings fits much better with the egg laying phase rather than the incubation phase.  As usual now, at the end of the day both our bluetit mums are tucked up for the night.

Also, we definitely have four robin chicks.  In the latest photo you can see four beaks with the white edges from their gapes.  I also went out with a torch when I got home and did a quick visual check.  They didn't seem to mind the intrusion.  There was no immediate startled reaction to the flash of the camera.  They must have got used to our comings and goings in the passageway at the back of the house, which runs a couple of feet from their nest.

(Again, if you click on the picture you will get a bigger version.  Its size is about 84kb so it should take about 15 seconds to download using a 56kb modem)

In the larger version you can clearly see four chick faces looking at the camera.  This time you can see the beak and eyes of the chick at the back left.  We wonder if the chicks are always in the same relative places?  Presumably the toughest, strongest chick gets the best (front?) spot early on, and therefore gets more food and manages to keep it.

 

 

Tuesday 7th May

There are now 11 eggs in Box2!  Battler is getting serious about sitting and has been on the eggs for most of the morning.  However, when she has been away, 11 eggs can clearly be seen.  If she carries on like this some eggs would hatch on about 20th May - but how many?  And would any of the earlier eggs hatch?  Well, whatever happens, its going to make an interesting case study.  The first two eggs were already laid when we came back from our holiday on 8th April.  There was then a short gap and then eggs 3 to 8 were laid on consecutive mornings from 11th till 17th April.  From 18th until 4th May nothing much happened except that more nesting material was brought in and it looked as though a fresh start was being made.  Then finally eggs 9, 10 and 11 were laid from 5th to 7th May.  

It's a pity we can't get a DNA analysis of the eggs to find out their parentage!  Of all the years we have been having eggs in our bluetits nest boxes, we have never had un-hatched eggs left in the box except for last year, when two eggs out of a clutch of nine didn't hatch.  Six out of the seven that did fledged successfully.  One disappeared.  Presumably it died very early and its body was removed from the nest by its mother.

Beauty is now in the middle of her incubation stint.  She started, more or less, on 1st May and with luck the chicks will hatch about 14th May.  She spends more or less all her time on the eggs, fidgeting and sometimes appearing to be turning them over, presumably to equalise their share of the favourable, warmer positions.  The pattern of egg laying was a little odd too.  She laid 4 eggs, one each day from 18th April until 21st April.  She then took a six day holiday, only laying the last 4 eggs over the five day period from 28th April.  Although she started incubation on1st May, her last, the eighth egg, was laid on 2nd May.

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