Bluetit Diary    Mar 2006 (5)

 

 

Thursday 9th March, 2006

The warmer weather has continued and so we are getting more nesting activity - at least at Box2.

This picture, taken at about a quarter past eight, shows Kate doing a nesting wriggle.

And this time it's a one winged wriggle!

Doesn't she realise that she's got to fill the nest box with nesting material first?  Still, it passes the time and keeps her ties to the nest site strong.

Here's Kate taking some moss out again!  She dropped it just outside the box.

At this time of year, all females seem to spend almost as much time taking stuff out of the box as they spend bringing it in.  Then suddenly, they realise that it's time to finish the nest - and it's built in a couple of days!

If Kate didn't have some activity that kept her in and around the nest site, she might lose it to some other bird - here is a great tit having a look around - so you can see that this 'playing-at-nest-building' stage has some useful purpose.

At least she does bring some stuff in sometimes!

Over at Box1, activity is much less advanced, but nonetheless still going on at a lower level.

This and the nest shot show two different bluetits in almost identical positions on the nest box hole.  This bird's body looks a bit bigger and has a wider tail.

This one is slighter and its body feathers seem to have slightly less blue about them.  I am not sure at this stage if they are a pair, and in which case which is the male and which the female, or whether they are two males looking for a nesting site.