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The Shuffle

Nest building in our Camera Nestbox has yet to begin. I wonder now if it will actually be used. The pair of Blue Tits do visit each day and the male is spending enough time pecking at the entrance and testing out the inside to suggest they must be interested. What was he doing yesterday in the film below?

The nestbox shuffle, video 0:17 without background music, try 480p quality.

Too good a finish perhaps, on the inside of our Nestbox, the plywood floor is clearly slippery for the Blue Tit’s feet as it walks about. I suspect it the test above was actually it unable to get up – but perhaps not. Of course the floor wouldn’t be a problem when there is a nest – all he needs to do is get building!

This morning, just after I published this post, the Blue Tit visited the Nestbox performing the same test as above – another three times! It now almost looks like it is deliberate. This was a very long visit where he has pecking at the walls and floor too. He concentrated on the corners for a while and finished with a good go at the camera. If I were to guess his mood I’d say he was almost getting agitated. Is time running out for him – is it now decision time? I am biased of course – but I think he should go for it.

Update Mar 26. Nesting Shuffle appears to be what is going on in the video above. I spotted a picture on the homepage of another website The 2 Wrennies. I emailed them to ask what was going on. Martin told me that when there is nesting material in the box the Blue Tit will perform this shuffle to push it out to the corners to eventually form a cup in the centre. How clever – I hope we see this in action in our box. I assume the Blue Tit was testing our box to see if there was enough floor space.

Update Apr 8th. I must now add for the last week we have seen the shuffle in action with moss in our box being shuffled to the sides. To see my video showing this, taken on Aril 7th, click here and scroll down the post.

The video, shown above, was taken in my garden on March 24th 2007.

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