Now for today's news! We switched on fairly early (for us!) and were pleased to see that a great tit made a visit at 07:51.
Although this is the first recorded visit of the day, judging by what happens later, the great tits could have visited half a dozen times already!
Visit number 2.
The fact that we cannot tell whether this is the male or the female is most frustrating. Even if one could reliably tell from the size and shape of the black stripe down a great tit's front, that wouldn't be much help as the position of the camera means that most images do not show the bird's front!
Suddenly, a bluetit appears outside the box. Has it just realised what is about to happen to its box?
You can see that at the time the bluetit is perched on the roof, the great tit inside crouches down and faces the hole with its beak partly open. A defensive posture perhaps?
This shot was taken at 11:16. The great tit has been inside for about 40 minutes! That's the longest time we have seen inside an empty nest box.
Here one can determine the sexes of this great tit pair by their different behaviour.
The bird on the floor inside is the female and the bird entering the box, a male.
Here you can see that the male has something in his beak - it looks like a small spider to me.
He appears a little reluctant to let the female have it - or is this just the behaviour that is to be expected in this situation.
He finally presents the female with his gift.
I think she wants some more!
Fifty minutes later the female comes in with the first piece of moss. The great tit pair have decided that they like it here and unless there is a change of plan, have decided to build their nest here.
What is not generally realised is that both bluetits and great tits are normally single brooded. If their first go at nesting fails, that's it for this season. The reason for this is that the main food for the chicks is the little green caterpillar that is to be found on oak trees at this time of year. This crop of caterpillars is only available for a short period in May/June and so a second brood of chicks would miss it.
Since he did not bring in any moss, I think this must be the male. His black chest patch, or what you can see of it, looks pretty big too!
The returning female catches him hanging around. Directly she is in the nest box, he shoots off.
Another load being distributed by flicking her head around.
Three minutes later she is back with another load.
This is the female leaving the nest after the last visit of the day.
A start has been made!