Day 21: All Gone!

So, the last two chicks spent their final night all alone in the nest box while the other two spent their first night in the wild!

No. 3 & No. 4

Meg arrives to tell them they really do have to leave this time...

Preparation starts. A couple of wing stretches...


"we have to go soon..."

"See that hole up there... that's where we've gotta go..."

A bit more encouragement from Mum and Dad...

Chick 4 doesn't want to watch, so she hides in the corner! Chick 3's tail is just visible as he leaves...

You're going to have to do it, No 4. You can't stay in there forever...

"Up there... okay..."
"Ready!"

"Steady!"

Gone! Ted double checks.


Good luck, chicks!

Day 20: D Day - Part 1

8am and they're all still at home.

Meg comes in to feed her brood and it's all a bit hectic. From 8am until 10am there were many visits to the entrance hole by the chicks but none of them plucked up the courage to make that leap...

At 10:39am chick number one decides it's time to take the plunge and jumps up to the hole. Unfortunately, I can only show pictures of their tails at this point!

He eventually left the box at 10:41. Seven minutes passed before I was able to get a picture of them all calm - and all in the same shot! One down, three to go.

At 12:29 Chick number two leaves so quickly that it's just a blur - and barely registers on the camera. We do get a clearer shot of the reaction, though.

"That leaves just me and you"

Two down, two to go. Meg vanishes for a long time now - presumably she's with her fledglings in the big wide world. It's now up to Ted to tempt the last two out.

Up goes chick number 3...

Ah, but she wasn't ready! They're also spending a lot of time in this corner - which makes it awfully hard to get pictures of them. But that's my fault for having the camera on the front wall of the box...

Ted is making visit after visit - but he just can't tempt them out. Little bits of food are coming in but not too much. Some food comes no further than the entrance hole.

Right. Sleepy decides it's all just too much - and so has an afternoon kip.

Half an hour later and Sleepy has barely moved. Time to get a move on!

Ted's still in and out of the nest like the clappers. He's also calling to them a lot from the washing line in the garden. But they just won't budge!

Two's company.

Time for another sleep!

Heading towards 3pm now... and there's not much sign of them fledging...

Ted's back - and he's wet. It's not raining at the moment, so he must have been for another bath.

Oh, this look promising. Is this it? Time for chick number 3 to go?

Nope! He was just exercising his wings. Now he's having a bite to eat.

While No. 2 and No. 3 are still in the box, one of the other chicks is being fed on the back lawn by Meg.

Talking of Meg - she's back at the nest box now. Maybe she can tempt them out...

Not yet, she can't! It's gone 5pm now... perhaps they're hanging around for another day?


Ted pays a food-less visit.

It looks like they just aren't ready.

Meg's turn this time - she brings some food with her, though.

And still they are here at 8:15pm!

I'm guessing they'll stay now until tomorrow...

Day 19

The laptop didn't go on until 9am this morning - a bit later than normal. What would I find?

All four still in residence!

Meg and Ted have been in the box almost constantly this morning (looking at the recorded footage from while I was still in bed!). They must be using food from the garden as they are so quick with the visits. But their behaviour is slightly different to normal. They're not normally in the box this much and they're not always bringing food in, either.

Are they letting the chicks know that time in the box is almost up?

The four chicks huddle in the corner...

but they turn round and beg for food as soon as it comes in.

They've repositioned to the front of the box now, and the chick in the middle glances up to the entrance hole...

"Shall I have a quick look?"

and up he goes! His first glance outside...

"What the hell are you doing! Come back down!"

And so he does! That's him at the side, facing the back of the box. Did he like what he saw?

Dad arrives with a little bit of food which he passes between all 4 chicks.

A bit more wing-flapping. Got to get those wings nice and strong!

Ted comes in again. No food this time. The chicks must know it's almost time to leave the box... but will they do it today?

This one decides she's just not ready! I think she's on strike. "Shan't do it!"

She's still facing the back of the nest four minutes later - and then gets disturbed by a big wing-stretch.

"I don't wanna do it either"

Mum and dad in at the same time... No food.

They're still not ready to go! Two of them decide to have a nap.


Dad's turn to come in again. All four chicks are still here - one is out of view at the bottom.

Another visit with no food - there have been lots like this today.

No food!

Ted suddenly turns up all wet! It hasn't been raining so he must have had a bath.


A group discussion on whether they should leave today... It's gone 3pm now, they're going to have to decide soon...

Okay, maybe later...

Food this time. And Meg and Ted both arrive at the same time.

Another look outside; this has happened several times now but they keeping coming back down to the safety of the nest.

More food - but it's tiny bits again - and it's still being spread between all four of them.

With Meg. Almost 7pm now...

Forty five minutes later and they seem to have bedded down for the night.

It's getting late now so I've decided to turn the lights off and let them sleep!

Day 18: Almost Done!

We're very close to fledging day now, but unfortunately the littlest one died overnight. It's a shame when they get this far, maybe just one or two days before leaving, for that to happen, but he just wasn't big enough to get to the front of the queue for food often enough.

Last night was also their first night without their mum.

So, our final four. One of them is eighteen days old today (presuming he was one to survive!), and day nineteen is a popular one to fledge! The rest of them are a day younger. Will they all hang on until day twenty?

Our four babies with mum, Meg.


Must get those wing feathers in proper order - they're going to need them soon! Give them a clean...

and a good stretch.



More stretching...


Four fluffy youngsters.

Caught directly under the lights - they're quite blue! Lucky that, what with them being blue tits!

All huddled together. They might not be doing this for much longer...



Imagine what it looks like when blue tits successfully raise a brood or 10 or 12! Yikes!

The final four! The first time the box was used, in 2007, four great chicks also fledged. Maybe we're a box of four!

Day 17

A quick selection of pictures from day seventeen.


All five youngsters...

Fluffy!



Stacked blue tits

Five again - with the little one squashed at the back as usual. Hope he makes it - he's having a real battle in getting to the food.

And a cute bundle.

Day 16

Meg had a lie in this morning - until 5:21am!

The nest box lights were turned on just before 8am and I wasn't sure if I'd find 5 chicks alive, or just 4.

I could see four of them straight away...

Two of them had a little kiss...

and just three minutes later, after a quick shift around, five chicks are visible. Phew!

And then it's time for a quick stretch...

Meg & Ted arrive together with some more breakfast.


A tasty green caterpillar about to be delivered...

Yum! That's a pretty big mouthful!

Some more exercise time; wing-flapping!

Lots of preening going on now, too; they have to look their best when they leave!

Getting yourself noticed when food comes in... If you look in the mouth of the bottom chick you will see a sunflower heart - this was taken back off that chick and passed to the one flapping its wings!

One of the chicks finds a comfortable spot of the top of his sibling's head...

Sparrows and starlings have been showing an interest in the nest over the past few days - this is the reaction a sparrow got.

We know the sparrows can't get in there now, but I don't know how far down a starling would manage to reach. Hopefully the double thickness entrance hole is enough to stop them reaching for the youngsters. It's something we will probably do on the new box for next year (along with a few other adjustments)

All five gapes!



"My turn, Mum!"


"Look at my wings, Mum!"


The family portrait...

Someone decides to go for an evening stroll... look at his miniature tail...

Another pretty uneventful day over with! Not many more to go now...

Day 15

Another pretty much drama-free day in the blue tit box.

One of the chicks still seems to be struggling slightly and is now getting buried quite often underneath the stronger ones. This means he then misses the offer of food when it comes in. If he's not buried underneath then he seems to get pushed to the back of the cup.

A little bit of wing-flapping started today in preparation for fledging day.

The normal sight of the past couple of days - four gapes.

One chick manages to get into an uncomfortable-looking position when food comes in...



Meg's turn to get squashed!

They seem to have had a growth spurt! This stage seems to come from nowhere!

Meg.

Miniature blue tits; no mistaking them now!

Five gapes! Hoping to see more of this tomorrow...

Meg in for the night.

With around 5 days to go it shouldn't be too long before they spend their first night alone.

Day 14

Meg first left the nest at 4:24 this morning. Before feeding the chicks, and before Ted arrived, she cleared the nest cup of overnight poo. Ted arrived a few minutes later at 4:39 - bringing a caterpillar with him.

It was another sunny day today, but much cooler - which I am sure was appreciated a little by the baby blue tits! By the evening we had completely clouded over and it looked like rain was on the way.

All seems ok in the nest box today. All the babies are feeding well - one seems smaller, and maybe weaker, than the other four, but he's still asking for, and getting, plenty of food.

Ouch! Meg stands on the head of one of the babies while she checks the nest cup for cleanliness!

More wing stretching. Wing flapping should start in a couple of days. Got to exercise those wings ready for fledging day!

One of the nestlings pops out of the nest cup for a while. They have spent virtually all day in the cup today with the weather being cooler.

S-T-R-E-T-C-H



Are they ever not hungry?!

From this...

to this... in a split second!





Meg was still busy feeding when I turned the lights off at 9:15pm.

Day 13 - Flaming June!

June already and it's hot, hot, hot! A couple more days like this and it'll all be over, and that'll be it for another summer. Probably.

The tiny blue tits are now officially cute! Well, I think they're cute from day one...

I'm battling with bad light mornings and some of the afternoon at the moment, so will only bother posting this one from early on - to show one of the youngsters out of the nest cup...

The black eye stripe feathers aren't yet fully grown. I think they look like eye masks at this stage...

Their head feathers are showing the distinctive soon-to-be-blue cap.


And it's still a never-ending round of hungry mouths...

And grumpy faces.

Mum, Dad and babies.

Ted

If you can make it out, Meg has just shoved one of the youngsters out during a routine round of enthusiastic housework. The baby is facing the bottom right corner of the picture.

A wing!

And a wing stretch!

Meg is still sleeping with the babies overnight, but at some stage this week they will be left alone for the first time. At the moment she's coming in at around 9:15pm.

Day 12

Unfortunately the two smallest nestlings died today. One of them was still alive at midday but had made absolutely no attempt to ask for food all morning. He barely moved from 8:30am onwards - only just enough for me to see that he was still alive. I haven't seen either of them since just after twelve o'clock this afternoon. As far as I know they are still at the bottom of the nest cup and have not been removed by the parents. At the moment I see no need to go in to remove the bodies, and will only do so as a last resort.

We're over halfway now, with about a week to go before they fledge.



They really are starting to look like mini blue tits now