Bluetit Diary    Jan 2009 (1)

 

 

Thursday 1st January, 2009

Another year - and hopefully, another collection of bluetit nests.  Keep your fingers crossed for a better season than those of the last two years!

Things are starting to look interesting around Box2.  Unfortunately, the outside camera for this box is located a little way away from the box on the top of a very tall fencing post.  It therefore has the habit of drifting out of position whenever the weather changes and as it is difficult to adjust, we tend to put up with off centre pictures for longer than we should.  However, now I have an iPAQ with i-Catcher Monitor on it, a Christmas present from one of my sons, so things should be a little easier.  I can see the effect of my adjustments immediately, instead of having to have a fraught conversation with Elizabeth over the phone whenever I want to readjust the camera.

We start the year with a pleasant surprise.  We used to get a lot of visits from long tailed tits, but until recently, we hadn't seen any.  Even then, we only had the odd singleton.

Now we suddenly find a group of 5 LTTs coming to the fat block in the Fat Feeder.  Let's hope it's a good omen - and that they keep on coming!

This is the start of a fairly long sequence, but I think an interesting one!.

At 12:27 a bluetit lands on the entrance to Box2. 

Almost immediately, it goes into the box.

It doesn't look at ease there though, and three seconds later is peering up out of the entrance hole.

I'm not too sure of the sex of this bird, but from its head feathers, I suspect it might be a male.

And this is why it is uneasy.  Another bluetit has landed on the box.

This bird now hops down to the entrance hole and looks inside.

This doesn't look like a very welcoming response - beak open and wings slightly spread.  I wonder what it is saying.

The bird outside doesn't seem too phased by all of this.

"Come on - it's only me".

This doesn't mollify the bird on the inside which has adopted a pretty defensive posture.

The bird outside appears a little taken aback ...

 ... and flies up to the roof of the nest box ...

 ... to let things settle down.

"I wonder if he's calmed down now?"

No, he certainly hasn't!

Pretty quickly, this picture was taken only four seconds after the last one, the bird inside does indeed calm down and hops up to the hole for a better look.

"Be like that then - see if I care!"

The bird inside just sits and watches the world go by.

"Where has she gone now?"

And so he leaves the box.