Well, another milestone has been passed - last night a bird roosted in one of our boxes for the first time this year.
It all started last night. At about half past six, just as we were about to shut down for the night, a bluetit went into Box1. It was already quite dark and we wondered whether it was thinking about roosting, so we watched to see what would happen.
He - it was the male bluetit - hopped onto the hole and stayed for a short while looking out. Then he left having been inside about a minute.
Ah well, we thought - another time.
Four minutes later he was back again and this time we decided to turn off the light straight away in the hope that this might encourage him to roost.
After a few hours, we turned the light back on again to see if our suspicions were correct and they were. There in the corner, curled up into a ball, was one bluetit - the first one roosting in either box this year!
We have found in the past that turning the light on again does not seem to disturb a roosting bird, and this time was no exception. We kept the light on for only about 10 seconds but during this time he did not stir at all!
Without wishing to be sexist, you can see it was the male that stayed the night can't you. He didn't even tidy his bed before he left!
Shortly after nine this morning, the female enters the box. She seems to take great interest in the droppings the male had left behind, but at this stage, doesn't do anything about them and quite soon leaves the box again
The nest visitor was the male (we really must get round to naming these two birds!)
He looks as though he was trying to pretend that they were nothing to do with him.