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Nestbox Diary, time to say cute

Yep… just look at the fluffy, blue and yellow mini me Blue tits max age 13 days old now! I’m hearing you all say awww 🙂

Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Mum still spends time with them throughout the day as well as out getting food for her young family. Spot the more contemporary nest cup shape…

A Blue Tit Mum’s housework is just never done! She’s just got to get into those corners. Bugs beware, she’s looking for YOU…

Let’s now take a look at our Blue tit family during one busy feeding time. Mum, Dad and the kids…

Video info: June 6th, Day 14, sees the first blue tit chicks 13 days old. All six chicks are actually looking like mini Blue tits now! If you turn up the volume on your speakers (no background music) you can hear the chicks tweeting away for food.

Note this first video below has not been edited at all. Here in this clip taken at just after 10am, you can see that the parents deliver food in very quick succession. Feeding isn’t like this all day long. There are periods of fast feeding in the morning, in the evening and sometimes over lunchtime. At other times there can be very few feeds coming to the chicks over an hour. These parents do seem to know what they are doing though.

Watch out for the rather in your face part where the chick goes bottom up and the female removes the faecal sac. Looking closely at this view you can see that the chick now has tail feathers. They are growing by the day now.

Let’s finally take a look now at Mum doing her housework with the kids under her feet…

Video info: June 6th, Day 14, sees Mum burying deep underneath the surface in her search for bug removal.

She finally brings up something that she has difficulty with. After some time she gets it out of the nest. It’s amusing to see the little chicks in the nest sitting still or being pushed around as she digs deep. Hope she is winning her battle of the bugs.

Work done for the day, our exhausted Mum was looking forward to an early night tonight…. Awww Mum, we’re just not tired yet…

Isn’t that just brilliant? Finally just a couple of things, I spotted on Midmarsh Jottings this morning that the RSPB are running an event just now similar to the Big Garden Birdwatch. It ends on June 13th. I missed this although there is still time to do it yet.

RSPB Make your nature count survey

As I’ve already mentioned BBC Springwatch is on at the moment. I was delighted to hear that finally Dave Culley (who I posted on earlier in the year with some of his video footage) has had Chris Packham join him at Sparrowhawk Island again and some footage will be shown on Tuesday’s programme. I am delighted for Dave… Congrats to you!

Sparrowhawk Island website

Dave also has live streaming cameras. Perhaps you might like to see the Sparrowhawk nesting and other bird action with him? There are night images too plus blogs about this nest.

If you are following Springwatch do enjoy it this week. If you are gardening or garden watching in you own garden do enjoy it too. Do you have garden plans for this week? What about garden visitors of the bird and wildlife kind… what might visit your garden this week?

All photos and video footage shown above was taken on June 6th 2010.

9 thoughts on “Nestbox Diary, time to say cute

  1. It's absolutely fascinating watching your family of bluetits developing.I watched the video very carefully and I'm sure it wasn't edited, the sequence was in real-time. I counted the visits to the nest with food and there wasn't more than 20 secs. between the longest absence so you must have an abundant supply of food in and around your garden.

  2. Hi again David, I’m delighted you are enjoying this too 😀

    We are at a stage now that we’ve never seen before so don’t know completely what to expect. I do hope all chicks survive this time. It is looking good just now but until they leave the nest there will always be uncertainty. I guess that adds to the fascination too when you just don’t know what will happen next.

    You are quite correct. I meant to add in my post that this clip had not been edited at all. Thanks, I’ll do that now. It was too late last night (past the post published time). Usually when I edit I use a piece of transition between the clips.

    I have many plants in my small garden and they are pretty packed in. It’s lush with foliage and the climbers are stretching up too. We also have a good strip of leylandii hedge for spiders etc and there are very large mature trees outside my garden that I can see the blue tits fly high over to.

    I have provided live mealworms in a feeder for them too for rainy days. The male has been taking them where the female usually opts for the fat cake as a supplement to the food she collects.

    Today, as I look in the nest at the moment it perhaps looks like they are beginning to see. Not sure though. It is fascinating and brilliant to share this family like this 😀

  3. Goodness me. How do the adults find so many small caterpillars so quickly. That was a privilege to watch. Thanks for sharing Shirl. The colour camera is doing a brilliant job, as it the video editoress.

    Thanks also for the mention.I hope the message re the RSPB count gets about before the week is up.

  4. Good evening everyone 🙂

    Dan, they so are on both counts. They’ve grown a bit today I see by how they are packed in the nest at the moment as I write this. We’re thinking they must be seeing a little tonight too 😀

    John, I agree. The male seems to find the most as he flies up over our hedge and into the distance to a very large mature tree. I do feel very privileged to be in this position and able to share it. You are most welcome. Yes, I am happy with this camera although I do believe the image could have been improved a little bit more. The weekend this female began building her nest we had planned to take the box down and very nervously open up the lens to clean some algae on the inside. We were given instructions by the manufacturer too. On saying that, although the image perhaps could be sharper it is definitely the colour that is making these images. Lol the editoress has had quite a job trying to choose the best bits out of lots of best bits but at the same time finding slightly different footage. Thanks, I do appreciate your comment. Thanks for posting on the count. I did miss this. I’ll try to fit in a posting if I can 🙂

    Carla, oh yes :-))))))

    Anon, thanks for stopping by to leave a comment. I am delighted you found your way here and enjoyed this video 😀

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