The diary and images below are from a previous year
( or view the images from the great tit diary)
(These images were captured using a low resolution black & white camera. I now have a high resolution camera from HANDYKAM.COM. Read my review here)
Blue tits produce a single brood of chicks each year. If that brood fails, there is no second chance. There may be from 7 - 13 eggs, although clutches in gardens may be smaller. Eggs take from 10 to 15 days to hatch. Although 'mum' spends every night in our nest box she still leaves the eggs during the day.
Covered with feathers and left |
Saturday 25th April |
Sunday 26th April |
|
Wednesday 1st May
|
Thursday 2nd May |
Friday 3rd May |
|
Click the individual images
below for a much larger view
or go to the pictures of the new born
chicks
Saturday 4th May |
Images captured Tuesday morning 7th May - Still eleven eggs |
||
On Sunday 5th May a visiting cat left our garden in haste with some poor creature dangling from its mouth. For the next two days the female bird was not visited by the male. He had been feeding her whilst she incubated the eggs, so we feared the worst. The RSPB booklet 'Cats and garden birds' quotes statistics from 'The Mammal Society' that estimates 55 million birds a year are killed by cats. The RSPB's response to my e-mail was "I think it
is likely to be the original male as other males would probably
have tried to tempt the female to a new nest site. If it was
a new male, then it may attempt to build a nest over the existing
eggs." Monday 13th May - 10.00 p.m. No more images, but the male is spending more time feeding 'mum' whilst she stays with the eggs. If all goes well, I'm hoping that there'll be some chicks by the weekend. Hard to imagine maybe, but watching the birds on our television screen for the last three months makes us particularly concerned for their welfare. Thursday 16th May - 10.00 p.m.. Four chicks hatched today - Latest images |
Building a blue tit box |
Cutting plans and the completed box |
Nest Box Cam - page 1 |
|
Nest Box Cam - page 3 |
|
Nest Box Cam - page 4 |
|
Nest Box Cam - page 5 |
|
Nest box Cam - page 6 |
| Sparrow terrace
- build a bird box for up to 3 pairs of house sparrows |
| Sparrow terrace - the cutting plan
|