Bluetit Diary    Feb 2021 (1)

Another routine visit to Box1.

And another.

It's about time I gave these two bluetits names - they seem to be an item. They are herebye to be called Ella and Ernie. Here Ernie has entered the box first and has been waiting for Ella to follow him.  Here she comes!

Ernie leaves immediately Ella enters the box.

This is Box2 and it looks as though it has another visit by the same bird that came to it at the end of January. He doesn't seem to visit very often, and so far there is no sign of his having a partner!

What a lot of white flecks he has, particularly in his head feathers.  He looks like an old bird.

Another swap-over in Box1.

Ella and Ernie are continuing as they started. Here they are doing yet another swap-over.

It is 2 days since Box2 had a visitor. At least it's the same bird as last time.

I don't know the pair in Box1 well enough yet to be certain of telling them apart, but I think this is Ernie.

Yet another swap-over in Box1.

This is another visit by the old visitor to Box2.

This visitor to Box2, about an hour after its last visitor, is clearly a different bird.  It is much smarter and I suppose it could be the first bird's partner, or another bird entirely.

Assuming it is the first bird's partner, she is giving Box2 a good look-over.

Nothing of note has happened in Box2 for nearly a week. However, this visitor is the same old bird that has visited it before.

I've left a gap of a few days because nothing new has been happening in either box. However, this swap-over in Box1 is a little different.

Instead of leaving the nest box immediately Ella arrives, this time Ernie flew up to the top of the box. I'm not quite sure what he thinks he is doing!

When in spite of trying, he fails to get hold of anything at the top of the box, he drops back to the floor and lands on top of Ella!

He then quickly leaves in the conventional way.

It's 5 days since there was last a visitor to Box2. At least it is the same old bird!

Regular visits to Box1 by both birds are continuing.

Another 4 days have passed since Box2 was visited. Again, it is same old bird.

This great tit is trying to get into Box1. You can see from his struggles that it is a tight fit.

Is he stuck?

He eventually managed it but it wasn't easy - and this hole size is the one recommended by the RSPB for great tits - 28mm!  I have always maintained that this is too small for great tits and that the recommended size for bluetits, namely 25mm, is also too small for that species.  Clearly our local birds are better fed than the average!

We have set the hole size for bluetits at 28mm and have increased this to 30mm when we wanted to attract great tits.  We have had great tits on 4 occasions, but never when the hole size was set to 28mm.  As you can see from today's episode, this is just too tight for them.

Ernie (or is it Ella?) has come to the box to try to defend it. You notice that he doesn't go into the box! That would surely be suicidal against a bigger, stronger great tit where there is no room for a bluetit's agility to give it an advantage!

Even though he doesn't go into the box, he is clearly making a major fuss outside.

Finally, he gives up and flies off.

The great tit reacts in typical tit fashion.

As Ernie has left shouting at him from outside the box, the great tit returns to inspecting the inside of the box.

After a while, he takes a look at the view from the hole and then flies off. Hopefully, that will be the end of that!

No such luck for Ella and Ernie.  A couple of hours later and the GT is back!

This image makes me think that the male was hoping his partner would follow him inside, but no such luck (for him!).