Bluetit Diary    May 2003 (78)

 

 

Saturday 31st May, 2003

We thought that Fluffy's last three chicks might fly today, so I rigged up the power supply for Box2 to come on at about 5 o'clock and left i-Catcher running all night.  It was just as well.  The last three chicks left within a minute of each other at 7.12am.  Even more remarkable, a woodpecker (Greater Spotted as usual) was poking its head into the nest only seconds before the first chick flew and again about 7 minutes afterwards.  Was there a connection?

The first picture we have shows that Fluffy and her chicks were already active.  At ten past five she comes to feed the chicks.  She feeds one and as the chick turns to give her a sac in return, Fluffy gets distracted by a fleck of white on the floor of the nest, which was probably the result of an earlier accident.  As a result, she picks this up and leaves with it, leaving the poor chick to poo into empty space.

Fluffy is distracted.  She leaves with the white fleck from the floor.

Poor chick - it was doing its best!

The woodpecker was also up early.  It visited shortly before the chicks flew.  Whether this scared them into going or the coincidence of the times was just a coincidence we shall never know, but 17 seconds after this visit, the first chick had gone.

The woodpecker pays a call.

Seventeen second later, this is the picture of the box.