Bluetit Diary    Jan 2004 (2)

 

 

Saturday 24th January, 2004

 

Following the removal of Box2's tree, we have been wondering where to put it.  There is one possibility that would not entail having to reroute the wiring, and that is to use the other birch tree in the hedge which is a few feet to the left of the one that blew down.  This morning, I investigated to see if it was going to be possible as there were two complications.  First there is a holly tree growing round it that would have to be significantly reduced.  The other complication is that there is so much ivy growing up this birch that it will be difficult to find a clear area on which to attach the box.

After much hacking and a bit of experimentation it became clear that our first potential site would not work without having to cut back too much of the ivy, but that a slightly different location would do.

While the box was out of action, my son helped me to add some white LEDs to the lighting inside the box.  Hopefully this will give better blues for the pictures we take.  It also gives a more uniform lighting with less shadows.

By a quarter past one the job was done and having started i-Catcher, I poked my finger in the hole to force a few pictures to be taken.  I had barely got back to look at them when we noticed that a bluey was showing an interest in the new box!  Six minutes later we had our first visitor!!  If you are interested in the sequence, use the web viewer to play back the images between 13.16 and 13.29.  It's the quickest visitor to a newly mounted nest box that I ever known!

There was another surprise too.  The second time she visited, our new bluey stayed a total of about six minutes and during that time it is clear that there was another bird taking a keen interest in what was going on.

This year we have arranged that the entrance hole to both boxes is on the left of the image so that you can see bluetits (and woodpeckers!) coming into the box.  While the first bird was inside you could see that another bird was on the entrance hole outside the box.  On one occasion an image was taken on which you can just see the beak of the outside bird.

Whether it is the visitor's partner or a competitor is not so clear at the moment.

Finally, another first for the year.   While running quickly through the images of Box1 we noticed the image alongside - two birds in the box at the same time.  It was only one frame and looking at the sequence more carefully it is clear that one bird entered and the other immediately left.

Going through the images more carefully, it is clear that this happened at least three times today, this being the only one where the birds are reasonably still.

Let's hope the cold weather next week won't put them off too much!