Blue is the colour...
Way back during the early stages of lockdown (4th April) as I was in the garden hanging out some clothes, down came a Blue Tit... with a mouthful of moss. It disappeared out of sight behind the shed, where our nest box and camera are located. And lo...when I came indoors and checked the camera on TV, the base of the nest box was covered in moss. Over several weeks we watched the nest building activity. Mrs Blue Tit, who is solely responsible for nest building, did not necessarily have the most productive way of working - she frequently brought a piece of moss inside, only to take it back out again and would regularly bury her head into the moss and spread her wings to rearrange things. Then she progressed to lining the nest with feathers - the soft furnishings - again very fussy and constantly tweaking and making adjustments! According to the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) nest building can be done in a single day but usually takes 1-2 weeks.
Egg laying appears to have started around 22nd April, although unfortunately despite checking regularly I missed the first few. Apparently they can bury them well. A single egg is laid each day and we finished with a total of nine. The eggs are incubated for 14 days, but this starts the day before the last egg is laid. I thus predicted hatching on 12th May - and I was entirely accurate!
Across the course of the day, the eggs have been hatching, with Mum carrying out broken pieces of eggshell and Dad appearing intermittently with some tasty morsels for her when she is sat on the nest. The babies are completely naked with huge eyes firmly shut and enormous mouths, a tangle of wriggling bodies that are difficult to count, with the unhatched eggs often buried beneath this writhing mass. The instinctive gape is already visible, with the strongest mouths opening as mum or dad re-enters the nest. As I write, there are still two eggs yet to hatch - watch this space...
This is such an exciting time, the climax of weeks of anticipation. Now it becomes more traumatic, as we wait to see how things develop. In the past we have watched in horror as a cat’s paw appeared through the entrance and waved opportunistically in the air. He could obviously hear the baby tweets and thought he’d try his luck. Tim managed to deter this with strategic placement of chicken wire around the nest box.
Not all the nestlings always make it, and it can be challenging to watch nature takes it course. But hope springs eternal, and my fingers are crossed that this is going to be a great year!
Egg laying appears to have started around 22nd April, although unfortunately despite checking regularly I missed the first few. Apparently they can bury them well. A single egg is laid each day and we finished with a total of nine. The eggs are incubated for 14 days, but this starts the day before the last egg is laid. I thus predicted hatching on 12th May - and I was entirely accurate!
Across the course of the day, the eggs have been hatching, with Mum carrying out broken pieces of eggshell and Dad appearing intermittently with some tasty morsels for her when she is sat on the nest. The babies are completely naked with huge eyes firmly shut and enormous mouths, a tangle of wriggling bodies that are difficult to count, with the unhatched eggs often buried beneath this writhing mass. The instinctive gape is already visible, with the strongest mouths opening as mum or dad re-enters the nest. As I write, there are still two eggs yet to hatch - watch this space...
This is such an exciting time, the climax of weeks of anticipation. Now it becomes more traumatic, as we wait to see how things develop. In the past we have watched in horror as a cat’s paw appeared through the entrance and waved opportunistically in the air. He could obviously hear the baby tweets and thought he’d try his luck. Tim managed to deter this with strategic placement of chicken wire around the nest box.
Not all the nestlings always make it, and it can be challenging to watch nature takes it course. But hope springs eternal, and my fingers are crossed that this is going to be a great year!
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