Bird Cam 2006
1/6/06. The last three chicks had fledged by 7.30am. The great tits also finally fledged during the day. Bye bye little ones, and good luck. I hope to see you in my garden again soon.
31/5/06. 8pm, got back from football to find only one blue tit in the nest box! After a brief panic that I'd missed everything, a further two babies came back into view (from perching up near the hole at the top of the picture), and there seem to be three babies still in the nest box. However, there are clearly two dead babies, one in the corner and one in the nest cup. But that means that two must have fledged today! Went out to try and find them in the horse chestnut tree, and I could hear them but not see them, rather frustratingly. Mum is still feeding the remaining chicks in the nest box. The great tits in the sparrow terrace are still in there! They must be the largest chicks ever by now, as they've been audibly cheeping longer than the blue tits have been hatched. However, they too seemed a bit louder today, perhaps the blue tits fledging will encourage them. Tomorrow evening could be very quiet...
31/5/06. 8am took some photos while I've still got the chance. There seem to only be five babies visible, and what looks like a dead blue tit chick in the top left hand corner of the picture. The babies are nearly as big as Mum blue tit now.
30/5/06. Still as cute as ever. Can't quite count how many there are now though, haven't seen all seven for a day or so.
27/5/06. Took a couple of movies today, one showing the chicks preening and flapping to get their wings ready for flight, and a second showing the chicks being fed by mum. The chicks are so fluffy and cute now that you just want to take pictures of them. They even have tails now, so they may be only days from fledging.
26/5/06. The chicks are looking like little blue tits now with striped heads and feathered tummies. They even have little tails and their wings are developed so that they flutter them at mum when she returns with food. They are all a bit too big for the nest cup now, and sprawl all around the nest box, and take up so much room that the parent bird no longer sleeps with them in the nest box overnight. They are all piled on top of each other that you can only count them when mum returns with food and they all leap up to pester her, but all seven seem healthy. They are all very noisy too!
23/5/06. I was a bit worried today as I found a dead chick floating in the pond. However, there are still seven chicks in the nest so perhaps this is chick #8 that has now been removed. Nonetheless, today is a big day for the chicks as their eyes opened for the first time! With their new-found sight many are taking sneaky peeks outside. You can't see them from outside really, but inside the nest box they boost each other up so they can see out of the hole (at the top of the picture). Another change today is that they are all now making noises from the throat rather than the squeaks from the diaphragm that they have been making up to now. At first (over the last three days or so) the noises were raspy sorts of noises and rather odd sounding, but the first two or three chicks are making sounds like bird calls for the first time today. In this movie you see a whole minute of the parent feeding the babies with mealworms from the bird table, she brings one back every 10-15 seconds. This went on for about ten minutes in total - phew!
21/5/06. Since yesterday only seven chicks have been visible, so I fear that the smallest one has died. Not sure what has happened to it though. The wing feathers on the chicks are growing significantly, and all have feathered heads now. Over the weekend we put out more mealworms which the blue tit was feeding very successfully to the chicks yesterday. Today there seems to be plenty of food in the horse chestnut tree to keep the babies happy. We also recorded a second Bird Cam movie showing the chicks being fed - 'food goes in, poo comes out'!
18/5/06. All eight chicks are still doing well. The largest chicks are showing the start of wing feathers, and even the smallest are no longer all pink (well pale grey on the screen but you know what I mean). They all still have their eyes closed though. You can see all eight beaks in this picture. The largest chicks can now reach well out of the nest when begging for food and seem to be growing very fast. Compare them to this Bird Cam movie of the chicks a couple of days ago.
16/5/06. The largest chicks are showing dark lines on their backs and wings where the feathers will grow. The chicks also seem much larger when they beg for food. One of the eight chicks is noticeably smaller than the others, so perhaps that one will not survive to fledge, but we'll see.
15/5/06. Yesterday we heard the babies start to make little cheeping noises for the first time. They are much more coordinated in begging for food when mum arrives and seem a little bigger than when hatched.
13/5/06. At 5.30pm yesterday seven had hatched, and this morning, there were no eggs and eight babies. I think there are eight, but they are difficult to count because they keep squirming about!
12/5/06. First checked out the nest at 7am and found that two more have hatched overnight to give six babies. Only two eggs left now.
11/5/06. 7.30pm and the fourth egg hatches leaving only four eggs. The parent blue tit eats the egg shell. I have been watching the nest and the garden for the past hour and a half, and the blue tit comes and goes regularly. When returning to the nest with food she gives a call to the babies. The great tits in the sparrow terrace are also busy feeding young. They must have hatched a few days ago as you can just hear the cheeping of the babies when you stand nearby. The baby blue tits cannot make any noise at the moment, even when gaping for food. The pair of robins are also busy feeding on the mealworms on the bird table, taking some more every few minutes. I think they have a nest in the hedge nearby.
11/5/06. 6pm and a third egg has just hatched! As you can see, the screen is very reflective in the afternoon light, but you can see two little mouths here, and a third chick is in the bottom right hand corner of the nest. Five eggs remaining....
11/5/06. Home at 5.30pm to find the first two eggs have hatched! Still six eggs remaining and an excited mum blue tit feeding the two babies and also still sitting on the eggs too. The light is a bit bad to take a photo, but will put one up as soon as I can.
3/5/06. The number of eggs has remained at eight, and the blue tit continues to incubate them. It could be ten to twelve days from last laying before they hatch, so it's fingers crossed I reckon.
30/4/06. Since yesterday I have noticed a change in the blue tit's behaviour. They are on the nest more often now, and don't cover the eggs when they are away for short times. I believe that they have now laid all their eggs and are incubating them. Having said that, I did see the blue tits having sex in the tree today, so perhaps more eggs are on the way... The number of eggs seems to be eight, possibly nine. The great tits in the sparrow terrace are still active too.
27/4/06. It is actually very difficult to see the eggs, as they are usually covered over most of the day, and in the evening around 7pm the blue tit returns to the nest, fidgets a great deal and then settles down to sleep sitting on the eggs. However, we got another good view of eggs this morning, and it looks like there may be six or seven eggs now.
24/4/06. It seems we got back home yesterday just in time. This morning (okay I checked at 5.30am due to jet lag) I found three small eggs laid in the nest! Not sure if these were all laid overnight, or just visible for the first time.
23/4/06. After many months of the blue tits avoiding Bird Cam nest box completely, even for roosting, I returned today from four weeks in Australia to find plenty of activity going on. There was lots of nesting material in the nest box. However, given my experience from last year (see 3/4/05) I did not expect too much. However, a blue tit did return this time, with more fluff for the nest. She spent the evening re-arranging the nesting material and forming the nest cup before settling down for the night. I reckon that great tits may have moved in to the back nest box (and perhaps one of the sparrow terrace boxes), evicting the blue tits back to the Bird Cam box.
