With the recent cold weather, not a lot has been happening in our nest boxes. Here are a couple of sequences showing what the birds do to pass the time at this time of year!
The male is already in Box2 when the female arrives. (You can see it's the male from his head feathers.)
She just about manages to touch down ...
... when he decides his mission is accomplished and departs at high speed!
In Box1, this old ritual is acted out in slow motion!
The time is 11.03am and the male has arrived at the box.
He flies down to the entrance.
He looks around for his partner as he is trying to persuade her that this is the place they should bring up their brood.
Hoping for the best, he goes in the box. Perhaps that's not fair. Perhaps he has seen her close by and expects she will follow him inside!
A minute has gone by and there is no sign of the female. So he perches on the hole and tries to attract the female's attention.
After another 15 seconds, he decides to leave the box, but instead of flying away ...
... he swivels around on the outside of the box ...
... and stays perched on the outside.
He repeats this process several times over quite a long time. Here you can see from the time stamp that two minutes have passed since the last picture!
Another swivel!
Still at it! Is he calling to her I wonder?
Back inside again.
He is still there FOUR minutes later! Four minutes is an eternity for a bluetit.
This is yet another swivel.
He's still looking for her. I hope she's worth it!
What's this? Has the female arrived?
By now the male is back in the box, eagerly awaiting the female's arrival.
What's happening here? Can he hear her?
Here she is at last. Nine whole minutes have passed since the male first came to the box.
At last she joins him in the box.
Already, he is preparing to leave her there.
He's away!
She is left alone in the box to check it out for herself.
But she doesn't stay long. Nine seconds after the male leaves the box, so does the female!
If this partnership isn't successful, it won't be the fault of the male!