| Brood | Start of nest building |
Start of roosting (female) |
Nest complete |
First egg laid |
No. of eggs |
Incubation started | Start of hatching | Wing Flapping | Fledging | Number fledged |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 Box1 | 26 Feb | 27 Feb | 18 Apr | 25 Apr | 9 | 4 May | 16 May | 30 May | 4 Jun | 6 |
| 2002 Box1 | 9 Mar | 25 Mar | 18 Apr | 8 | 1 May | 13 May | 28 May | 1 Jun | 7 | |
| 2002 Box2 | 19 Feb | 21 Mar | 7 Apr | 8+3 | 7 May (note 1) |
19 May | 7 Jun | 5 | ||
| 2003 Box1 | 11 Mar | 31 Mar | 20 Apr | 24 Apr | 8 | 5 May | 16 May | 5 Jun | 6 | |
| 2003 Box2 | 29 Mar | 31 Mar | 19 Apr | 25 Apr | 5 | 30 Apr | 13 May | 27 May | 31 May | 2 (note2) |
| 2004 Box1 | 1 Mar | 18 Apr | 21 Apr | (note 3) | - | |||||
| 2004 Box2 | 20 Mar | 7 Apr | 5 Apr | 16 Apr | 7 | 23 Apr | 6 May | 19 May | 24 May | 7 |
| 2005 Box1 (GT) | 10 Apr (note 4) |
21 Apr | 13 Apr | 22 Apr | 5 | 27 Apr | 9 May | 29 May | 5 | |
| 2005 Box2 | 11 Mar | 5 Apr | 5 Apr | 13 Apr | 8 | 21 Apr | 4 May | 19 May | 25 May | 6 |
| 2006 Box1 (GT) | 6 Apr (note 4) |
18 Apr | 20 Apr | 5 | 24 Apr | 6 May | 25 May | 2 | ||
| 2006 Box2 | 8 Mar | 20 Apr | 21 Apr | 10 | 29 Apr | 11 May | 29 May | 1 Jun | 8 | |
| 2007 Box1 (GT) | 1 Mar (note 4) |
5 Jan | 15 Mar | 11 Apr | 6 | 16 Apr | 28 April | 14 May | 18 May | 6 |
| 2007 Box2 | 23 Feb | 7 Apr | 13 Apr | 10 | 21 Apr | 2 May | (note 5) | |||
| 2007 Box3 | 24 Mar | 12 Apr | 14 Apr | 9 | 21 Apr | 4 May | (note 5) | |||
| 2008 Box1 (GT) | 26 Mar (note 4) |
29 Mar | 12 Apr | 22 Apr | 5 | 26 Apr | (note 6) | |||
| 2008 Box2 | 11 Mar | 17 Apr | 12 Apr | 18 Apr | 11 | 26 Apr | 9 May | 20 May | 28 May | 10 |
| 2008 Box3 (GT) | 29 Mar (note 7) |
8 May | 7 May | 9 May | 5 | 13 May | 25 May | (note 8) | ||
| 2009 Box1 | 13 Mar | 20 Apr | 22 Apr | 9 | 3 May | 16 May | 1 June | 4 June | 2 | |
| 2009 Box2 | 18 Feb | 6 Apr | 11 Apr | 12 | 21 Apr | 3 May | 24 May | 6 | ||
| 2010 Box1 | 20 Feb | 18 Apr | 22 Apr | 23 Apr | 10 | 30 Apr | 14 May | 27 May | 4 Jun | 3 (note 9) |
| 2010 Box2 | 20 Feb | 7 Apr | 12 Apr | 16 Apr (note 10) |
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| 2010 Box3 | 15 Apr | 22 Apr | 24 Apr | 8 | 29 Apr | 12 May | 25 May | 30/31 May | 5 | |
| 2011 Box1 | 24 Feb | 9 Apr | 10 Apr | 12 Apr (note 11) |
14 | 22 Apr | 4 May | 23/26 May | 7 | |
| 2011 Box2 | 10 Mar | 29 Mar | 29 Mar | 12 Apr | 10 | 19 Apr | 1 May | 14 May | 21 May | 10 |
| 2011 Box3 | 21 Mar | 6 Apr | 10 Apr | 14 Apr | 10 | 22 Apr | 4 May | 23 May | 9 | |
| 2012 Box1 | 19 Feb | 5 Apr | About 10 Apr | 14 Apr | 10 | 26 Apr | 10 May | 28 May | 30 May | 3 |
| 2012 Box2 | 7 Feb | 3 Apr | 28 Mar | 10 Apr | 9 | 19 Apr | 1 May | 18 May | 22 May | 6 |
| 2012 Box3 | (note 12) | |||||||||
| 2013 Box1 | 1 Apr (note 13) |
19 Apr | 21 Apr | 26 Apr | 8 | 3 May | 17 May | (note16) | ||
| 2013 Box2 | 1 Apr (note 13) |
17 Apr | 12 Apr | 23 Apr | 11+10 (note 14) |
2 May 9 May |
16 May | 30 May | 5/6 Jun | 12! |
| 2013 Box3 | (note 15) | |||||||||
| 2014 Box1 | 4 Mar | 4 Apr | 18 Mar | 7 Apr | 9 | 15 Apr | 27 Apr | (note18) | ||
| 2014 Box2 | 11 Mar | 4 Apr | 19 Mar | 8 Apr | 11 | 17 Apr | 30 Apr | 14 May | 20 May | 7 |
| 2014 Box3 | (note 17) | |||||||||
| 2015 Box1 | 20 Mar | 11 Apr | 9 Apr | 21 Apr | 8 | 28 Apr | 10 May | ? | 30/31 May | 6 |
| 2015 Box2 | 5 Mar | 11 Apr | 1 Apr | 16 Apr | 9+9 (note 19) |
25 Apr | 7 May | ? | 27 May | 12! |
| 2015 Box3 | 28 Mar | 13 Apr | 13 Apr | 17 Apr | 7 | 26 Apr | 8 May | (note20) | - | - |
| 2016 Box1 | 9 Apr | 16 May | 17 May | 7 | 22 May | 3 Jun | (note21) | |||
| 2016 Box2 | 3 Mar | 21 Apr | 20 Apr | 19? | 30 Apr | 16 May | 31 May | 3/4 Jun | 6 | |
| 2016 Box3 | 9 Apr | 27 Apr | 1 May | 8 | 6 May | 19 May | ||||
| 2017 Box1 | 1 Mar | |||||||||
| 2017 Box2 | ||||||||||
| 2017 Box3 | ||||||||||
| 2018 Box1 | 21 Mar | 19 Apr | 21 Apr | 21 Apr | 9 | 29 Apr | 12 May | 28 May | 31 May/1 Jun | 9 |
| 2018 Box2 | 20 Mar | See Summary | 10 May | 10 May | 9 | 16 May | 29 May | 13 June | ||
| 2018 Box3 | No nest | this year | yet again! | |||||||
| 2019 Box1 | 20 Mar | 1 Mar | 9 Apr | 13 Apr | 11 | 22 Apr | 4 May | 15 May | 24/25 May | 9 |
| 2019 Box2 | 4 Mar | 31 Mar | 29 Mar | 3 Apr | 11 | 13 Apr | 26 Apr | 12 May | 17/18 May | 8 |
| 2020 Box1 | 7 Feb | 28 Feb | 9 Apr | 16 Apr | 9 | 23 Apr | 5 May | 15 May | 23/24 May | 6 |
| 2020 Box2 | 25 Feb | 10 Apr | 9 Apr | 14 Apr | 9 | 22 Apr | 5 May (note 22) |
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| 2021 Box1 | 21 Feb | 29 Mar | 17 Apr | 6 | 22 Apr | 4 May | 24 May | 26 May | 3 | |
| 2021 Box2 | 1 Apr | 25 Apr | (note 23) | |||||||
| 2022 Box1 | 8 Mar | 19-26 Mar (note 24) |
31 Mar | 11 Apr | 10 | 19 Apr | 30 Apr-6 May (note 24) |
16 May | 22 May | 7 |
| 2022 Box2 | 19-26 Mar (note 24) |
15 Apr | (note 25) | |||||||
| 2023 Box 1 |
||||||||||
| 2023 Box2 | ||||||||||
| 2024 Box1 | 18 Mar | |||||||||
| 2024 Box2 | 21 Mar (note 26) |
7 Apr | 8 Apr | 11 Apr | 10 | 19 Apr | 2 May | 15 May | 20/21 May | 10! |
Note 1. After the first 8 eggs had been laid, a fight over possession of the nest took place. Fresh nesting material was brought in and nearly 3 weeks later the new hen started laying. By the time that a further 3 eggs had been laid the original clutch had resurfaced and she probably thought she had laid all 11! Six eggs eventually hatched and five chicks fledged.
Note 2. Three chicks were taken from the nest box by a great spotted woodpecker shortly before they fledged.
Note 3. The female disappeared shortly after she had completed the nest. The male continued to call her and bring food to the nest for her for over two weeks.
Note 4. A great tit pair occupied Box1 these years. Incubation and fledging times differ little from those of bluetits.
Note 5. Three days after hatching, all the chicks in this box were dead. How they died is not known for certain, but is believed to be due to lack of food..
Note 6. This nest was deserted for unknown reasons early on 1st May.
Note 7. This nest was started by a bluetit but deserted before the nest was completed or eggs laid. The nest box was subsequently taken over by a great tit who started adding more material on 7th May. The rest of the dates relate to the great tit's occupancy.
Note 8. After a couple of days, the male great tit seemed to lose interest in bringing food to the nest. He only visited infrequently and on the third day the chicks started dying. By the morning of the fifth day, all the chicks were dead.
Note 9. The male bluetit disappeared during egg laying and only 3 of the 10 eggs hatched. The female managed to bring these chicks to a successful fledging by herself.
Note 10. The female disappeared shortly after being fed by her partner at 11.30am on Saturday 17th April, the day after she laid her first egg. The male continued to visit the nest box once each day for several days. We fear the female must have been predated.
Note 11. Two females laid eggs in this nest box and then competed to see which would incubate the eggs. Amy won that competition!
Note 12. At the time we would have expected the bluetit pair interested in this box to have started building a nest, our next door neighbour was building a car port the other side of the hedge and only a few feet away from the nest box. This may have contributed to the lack of a nest being built in Box3 this year.
Note 13. The very cold early Spring meant that the nests in both Box1 and Box2 were started in a very haphazard way. 1st April was around the right date for both.
Note 14. Two females shared this nest box. Sally laid 11 eggs and Scruff laid about 10 making about 21 in total. The first egg was laid by Sally on 23rd April and Scruff's first egg was laid on 1st May. They both laid eggs for 3 days before Sally stopped laying.
Note 15. The use of the next door neighbour's car port was sufficiently disturbing to put birds off using Box3 again this year. We shall have to find a new location for this box in 2014
Note 16. The female parent disappeared sometime during the afternoon of 25th May. Without the female to keep them warm overnight, the chicks all died.
Note 17. Some time last December a bluetit roosted in this box for several days. This was sufficient excuse not to move the box this year. However, the bluetit stopped roosting and again no nest was built.
Note 18. Three days after they had hatched out, Georgie's chicks started dying. One the first day, one a couple of days later and by five days later they were all dead. No clues at to the cause of this have been forthcoming.
Note 19. As in 2013 (see Note 14) two females shared this nest box. Suzie and Rosie started laying on the same day and the number of eggs increased by 2 each day until the total was 18. They then both stopped laying.
Note 20. What happened to the chicks in this box is a mystery. Perhaps the female was predated and the male could not manage to look after them by himself. Perhaps they caught some bug or other - who can tell. All we know is that it is another failure to add to the already extensive catalogue of failures in Box3!
Note 21. Patch, the male bluetit in Box1, was last seen on 24th May, the day the last egg in this box was laid. Whether he was predated or just decided he wasn't interested is not known. His disappearance meant certain death for the chicks.
Note 22. Drake, the male bluetit in Box2, was last seen bringing food to Daisy, on May 5th, the day the eggs started hatching. He disappeared around 8:10am that day. The chicks all died about 3 days later.
Note 23. In spite of building the nest and doing several nesting wriggles, Scruffy did nothing more. Visits from at least 2 BTs and GTs continued until the last GT visit on 18th May. No sign of a male BT was ever seen.
Note 24. I was on holiday during this period and was therefore unable to fix this date precisely.
Note 25. As happened last year, the female never roosted in this box and no eggs were laid.
Note 26. This is complicated by the fact that the nest was started by a bluetit on 21 March but taken over by a coal tit who started adding more nesting material on 4 April.