Last year, we were sucessfully visited by our nesting Great Tit family. This year, in early April, we placed several new boxes around our workshop in anticipation of attracting some more feathered visitors.
After many inspections, a fine pair of Blue Tits began to moving into one of our cedar camera boxes. This is one of our fine nest box kit with our colour, audio and infra red cameras.
The box is situated on the back of the workshop and is a good excuse for our team to have many coffee breaks and enjoy the action.
We were able to document this in a daily nest log.
1st April 2008 - Clip 1 A rather sparse view of our empty cedar nest box. As you can see with the windows the camera picks up a lot of light. The camera is focussed slightly above the base to account for the nest height. Fingers crossed the birds will arrive soon..
8th April 2008 - Clip 2 After leaving the boxes for a while, we noticed a few noises, calls and a lot of scratching. When we looked at the cameras, we found a pair of fine Blue Tits start moving in and shifting the furniture around.
23rd April 2008 - Clip 3 Mr and Mrs B Tit have been busy for over a week. During this time, Mrs B Tit has eaten a lot more than usual and is starting to spend more time in her newly renovated camera nest box. The box is warm and dry and safe, away from preditors.
24th April 2008 - Clip 4 Wow, look what Mrs B T has produced. 5 wonderful eggs. She had been sitting and sleeping for a long periods of time, moving now and again to get more comfortable. Spring is fully underway. All this wonderful hidden world captured on film.
29th April 2008 - Clip 6 Mrs tit, exhausted from all her work is now sitting on here eggs for longer periods of time. The eggs are slighly buff in colour with tiny speckles.Mrs B T pops out now and again whih helps regulate the temperature of the incubation as well as giving her a well earned rest.
3rd May 2008 – Clip 7 Mrs B Tit normally sits on the eggs while Mr B Tit sleeps outside. At night, she normally sleeps with her head under her wing and fluffs her feathers up to keep warm stopping to turn her eggs now and again.
8th May 2008 – Clip 8 The first eggs begin to hatch. As good parents Mr and Mrs B T begin feeding. Although, they often give super sized portions. The new chicks are yet to see but instinct tells them to pop their heads up when the parents make a noise.
9th May 2008 – Clip 9 The last eggs are hatching, eagerly assisted by Mrs B T who teases the shells away from the delicate chicks. She will either eat or carry the shell away from the nest. This may have been a learned activity from previous broods.
10th May – Clip 10 Mrs B T continues to feed her new family. Although, large caterpillars prove to be a problem for the small chicks. But, saying this, they soon devour them quickly.
12th May 2008 – Clip 11 The chicks are getting bigger and bigger daily. Mr B T also helps Mrs B T. He is learning a lot, but he will get there. Sometimes, in the early stages, we have seen him feed Mrs B T, which in-turn feeds their chicks.
13th May 2008 – Clip 12 Rain or shine the chicks have still got to be fed. Mrs B T is doing a sterling job of this. Sadly, looks like we have lost a couple of chicks along the way. This is normal and is one of the major reasons why they lay may eggs.
16th May 2008 – Clip 13 Mr and Mrs B T are really working hard, looking after the young blue tits. Here you see them compete for food and how they keep the nest clean. The young chicks seem to turn upside down and the fecal sacks are taken away by the parents.
26th May 2008 – Clip 14 The chicks are now very big and showing signs of flight. The nest is now looking very small as poor Mrs B T is squeezed out. As they get bigger, they make more noise and become more competetive.
27th May 2008 - Clip 15 BLUE TIT FAMILY - ALL GONE! After over a month of filming Mr and Mrs B Tit, they have all flown the nest. Again, unfortunelty we did not get any footage of this as it looks like it happened early.
However, it was wonderful that we managed to see Mr and Mrs B Tit through stages of raising their brood. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Hopefully, we will get some more in our other boxes. If you have had success, please send us your footage and we will share it with others.
Handykam camera nest box kits It is stunning to see garden birds in nature. With a handykam nest box kit you can have the fun of giving them a home and watching them lay their eggs and raise their young. Please send us your footage.
