Bluetit Diary    Feb 2004 (11)

 

 

Thursday 19th February, 2004

Well, the day started bright and sunny and we had high hopes of some good pictures.  Unfortunately, Fluffy and Barney thought otherwise and although Fluffy at least (we can't recognise Barney out of the nest box) came to the mealworms and other feeders several times during the day, neither of them went into their box.  It was much colder with a bitter wind so perhaps they thought nesting was not high on their list of priorities.

Still, the birds in Box1 have been more active today.  Perhaps they have forgiven us for changing the lighting!  Their blues still look darker than those of Fluffy and Barney so we may have to do some more tweaking.  We haven't decided on names for them either.  They haven't done enough to acquire personalities yet.  However, describing what happens without names is a bit clumsy so we shall have to make our minds up soon.  Any suggestions?

Still, perhaps we have enough evidence now to see that the white head band is not much of a guide to a bluetit's sex.

This fellow has a broad band - at least it appears so from this perspective.

Here is another view of him.  Again, the wide band is pretty obvious.

 

Here he is again, this time sulking in the corner - perhaps his partner has repulsed him?

Now, which of them is this?  Whichever it is has heard something outside.

"I'm off!"

The original bird is now on its way out and the new entrant has landed in the bottom right hand corner.

"What have I done, then?"

The newcomer has now moved to the top right corner and is staring out of the nest box hole.

We know from many previous examples that this exchange of occupancy is a regular occurrence between bluetit partners.

The probability is that the first visitor is the male and the newcomer is the female.

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