HOW MANY BIRDS HAVE CHICKS?

The weather is playing mind games with everyone at the moment; one day it’s spring, the next day it’s like winter is returning.

I’ve been continuing with the mealworm hand-outs and also kept the fat snacks filled, both of which have been very well received by the birds.

Putting the mealworms out has given me a chance to calculate which birds have chicks, and if so find where the nests are.

I know the blue tits nesting in the camera nestbox have got chicks, even though I can’t see them because the camera isn’t working! The two parents are very grateful for the mealworms, because it seems there are very few caterpillars about.

When there haven’t been any mealworms on offer the blue tits are taking tiny fragments of the fat snacks for the chicks, which is unusual but seems to be working.

Two robin families are present and I’ve managed to track one to the railway bridge, although the exact location of the nest is yet to be determined.

The other robin family hasn’t been traced, although I know the general direction the nest is in.

The railway bridge robins seem to have some neighbours in the shape of a pair of swallows who I think are building a nest right underneath the bridge.

I know swallows that nest under a swing bridge over a river, but I’ve never heard, or known, swallows nesting under a railway bridge.

The house sparrows are also taking some mealworms along with a pair of great tits, although the location of these nests is still a mystery.

I suspect the blackbirds are on eggs as I’ve only seen and heard the males during the last week.

The male great spotted woodpecker is now a daily visitor, mainly to the fat snacks although I’ve seen him take a few mealworms.

He’s such a flighty bird that he’s rarely around for longer than a few minutes.

With little natural food it seems all the nesting birds with chicks are using the fat snacks to feed their youngsters, which is something I’d never thought about before.

Even so, I’m limiting the mealworm hand-outs as I don’t want the birds to be reliant on them as I can’t be here all the time to put them out.

Next time I might have some fledging news!

HAVE THE EGGS HATCHED?

Spring isn’t exactly helping the wildlife in and around my garden, just at the time when the nesting birds are looking for some assistance from Mother Nature.

The nestbox camera still isn’t working, although I’m positive the eggs have hatched as the parents are often seen scampering in to the tiny opening with little bits of food for the chicks.

I don’t know what the adult birds are bringing for the chicks to eat, as I’ve not seen any caterpillars around.

I’m constantly putting out small amounts of mealworms, although so far I’ve not seen the blue tit parents taking any.

What I have seen is other parent birds taking up to ten mealworms at a time to feed their chicks. There are two robin nests around my house, although exactly where they are is something I’m still trying to track down.

One things is for sure and that is I must find them this weekend otherwise the chicks will fledge and the only glimpses I’ll get is when they come to my garden to feed for a few days before disappearing into the wider countryside until last summer or autumn.

I’m hoping that spring will come soon and that will lead to the potential for the robins to have another brood, and if I find the nests then I’ll be very pleased to see the second brood growing up.

I’ve also had the usual visits from the house sparrow colony, although I don’t think they’re nesting in my sparrow nestbox.

Two visitors have surprised me this week, one was from a number of starlings, which is unusual because I’ve not seen many around the house over the years, but the other visitor was a male great spotted woodpecker, who was happily munching on the fat snack right in front of my kitchen window.

 

I managed to get one picture of him before he took flight, but I did see him returning on a number of occasions so food must be scarce out there for all sorts of birds and animals.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed for spring to finally spring into life and help our wildlife in the vital breeding season.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION - I JUST CAN'T SEE IT

It would seem I cannot win with this nestbox camera, as it seems to change its mind as to whether it’ll work or not.

At the moment it’s not working, but the last time I managed to see in to the nestbox there were eight blue tit eggs, as you can see in the image below! Great news and it appears they’re being incubated as I’ve seen both birds in and around the nestbox.

I suspect that hatching will be happening this weekend, although whether I get to see it is another thing. I’ll be keeping an eye and ear out for signs that the chicks have arrived and be ready to assist if the caterpillar explosion doesn’t happen.

In the last couple of days I’ve seen more butterflies than I have all year, which is obviously down to the rubbish weather we’ve had all year, and since this time last year.

Will there be enough butterflies around to mate, lay eggs and in turn provide food for the young chicks? I hope so.

I think there has been some eggs hatching as I’ve noticed one of the robin with a mouthful of mealworms that I’d put out. I still don’t know where the nest is, but hopefully soon I’ll see the speckled youngsters in the garden.

The swallows are filling the air with their delightful songs and amazing aerobatics. There is more than one pair, although I’m not sure if the others are nesting nearby, perhaps in the horse stable in the field behind our house – if this is the case I suspect there will be more than one nest.

I’ve now put up my small greenhouse again and will be spending lots more time outdoors tending to my sunflowers, tomatoes and runner beans.

The concern I have at the moment is the potato and parsnip crops I’ve had in the garden. Neither has shown signs of growing, although this warm weather might help get the soil up to an optimum temperature for both to start growing.

Finally our house has been invaded by ants, which I suspect don’t have enough food outside due to the weather and are seeking what we have. I just hope they don’t build a nest in the house as that would be very unwelcome.

CAN SPRING, SPRING INTO LIFE?

Good news and bad news this week. The good news is the nestbox camera started to work again and revealed some very egg-citing news. The bad news is towards the end of the week it stopped working again!

I’m just relying on hope that it’ll somehow come back online because I can’t risk disturbing the pair of blue tits at this stage.

As you can see from the images below, the news this week has been around the laying of eggs. The first one was laid on Wednesday night, with another one joining it on Thursday night.

 

 

 

Unfortunately I was ‘on duty’ for my own offspring on Thursday night so the only pic I got was of the female roosting, by Friday morning, when I expected to get the image of more eggs, the camera had stopped transmitting.

Over the weekend I’ve noticed increased activity around the nestbox and the blue tits are still going in and out of it, so I can only assume there are more eggs and in a couple of weeks there will be chicks.

My concern at this point is the availability of caterpillars for the youngsters to feed on. The weather reports for the next week suggest no real warmth and with very few butterflies and moths being seen I’m not sure if there will be much, if any, food for the chicks.

I’ve got my supply of mealworms, so will be ready to supplement the natural food supply when I think the chicks have arrived (hopefully know because of the camera miraculously working), so support is at hand for the blue tits and the other birds visiting my garden.

In other news I have seen a few more bees about, although nowhere near as many as in recent Aprils, so I can only hope that the flowers I’ve got blooming in my garden are able to help the insects that are currently active.

I’m now seeing the robins in singles rather than the previous duos, so I’m presuming the female is sitting on eggs somewhere. I’d like to know where the nest is, even though I have an idea, but for now I’m happy with seeing one of the prospective parents following me around whenever I’m working outside.

Looking back on my blog from last year I noticed that the swallows arrived back later than this year, with the first one sighted in 2013 just over a week earlier than in 2012. Is this a sign for a good summer?

The six that did arrive in mid-April have now become just a pair, I suspect it’s simply a case of the group splitting up to find suitable nesting sites, but I presume the pair that has stayed is either parents from last year, or one of their youngsters.

Finally my sparrow nestbox has had some visitors and is becoming a regular perching spot for some of the groups of house sparrows that visit my garden. I watched out of the window yesterday as a male and female perched there and started looking at the holes to gain access.

Perhaps the late winter and delayed spring did help in my quest to provide house sparrow accommodation this year!

SPRING BRINGS GOOD AND BAD NEWS

I returned from a week away with the family to find the nestbox camera isn’t working again! I can’t express how disappointed I am considering spring is finally with us and the blue tits seem to be very busy around the nestbox.

I suspect there are eggs in there, or will be very shortly, and therefore I’m not going to investigate or tamper with the nestbox as this will only disturb the family and I’d rather wait until the eggs become chicks and the chicks become bigger.

One way of testing there are chicks is putting out live mealworms and seeing how often the parent birds take the food to the nestbox.

I’ve ordered some today through www.livefoodsdirect.co.uk so later this week should be able to get an indication as to whether chicks are imminent or when they arrive.

This in turn will allow me to judge when, or if, I can try to get the camera working again. I’ll be reading my blog from the last couple of springs to check on how long it takes for the chicks to become too big for the parents to incubate them at night.

One positive was the return to my garden of the beautiful spring/summer sounds that bounce on the airwaves around the UK, made of course by my favourite UK visitor, the swallow.

I counted six individuals dancing in the skies around my garden, frequently swooping in the evening sun last night to catch insects that were gathering to enjoy some spring warmth.

I think they’re still catching up on the changes around the place, although whether they can nest in the sheds behind our house is open to debate given the idiots (and I use the word very carefully and with justification) that rented the house with these sheds.

They have since left, but whether the interiors are still enticing for the swallows and indeed whether the local population of five cats can access the buildings through the crumbling roof, is something I’ll be watching with interest.

Perhaps I’ll pay the buildings a visit in the next few days to check everything is ok.

One final note was the sighting of a bee this morning, which I will only be able to see as a positive if it is seen again and with plenty of others.

So one good bit of news and one not so good, but overall spring is here and hopefully the wildlife can start to get on with producing the next generation.

SPRING WEATHER BRINGS NESTBOX ACTION

The focus this week has been on the nestbox camera and what is turning out to be an interesting battle for breeding.

As spring finally begins to show itself the blue tits have built a nest and are showing signs that eggs could soon be on their way.

There is a twist to this story as the great tit pair are spending an increased amount of time in my garden and seem to be eyeing up the nestbox for themselves.

Interest from the great tits is not going unnoticed as the blue tits are now beginning to chase their adversaries away from the nextbox. What will happen in the coming week? Will the blue tits lay eggs and raise their brood without interference from the great tits? Time will tell and this little battle is what helps make watching wildlife so fascinating.

In the last few nights the female blue tit has been roosting in the nestbox and it’s been very interesting watching her say ‘goodnight’ to her partner in the fruit tree at the bottom of the garden, before they both got to their own roosting sites.

In other news the great spotted woodpecker has been heard nearly every day hammering away at one of the dead trees on the fields behind the house. Perhaps we’ll see him/her in the garden again soon, although not if it means the blue tit chicks are being predated!

There is a new bird nesting in the trees around the garden area, although not one that is welcomed by the small garden birds.

That’s right a pair of magpies are building a nest and while their presence sometimes causes the smaller birds to flee into the rose bush or hawthorn hedge, they don’t seem too bothered and it’s not affecting the numbers coming to my garden to feed. 

Below is a series of images taken over a ten day period up until today.

 

 

NESTBOX CAMERA NEST OWNER REVEALED!

The owner of the camera nestbox with its new nest has been revealed – and I was right the blue tits are back!

After a two year absence, because of a great tit pair claiming the nestbox, the blue tits are back for a third year.

They previously nested in the first two years after the nestbox was up, but were usurped by the great tits, leaving the blue tits to find a new site – which happened to be a small hole in the brickwork of next door.

It’s great to know that the nestbox will continue to be utilised to ensure it’s been used for every year since I put it up.

There’s only one thing I’m hoping for this year and that is the weather doesn’t affect the breeding season following last year and the heavy rain – this unfortunately meant the great tit chicks didn’t survive more than a couple of days.

One thing I listened to today that I’ve not heard for five years was the sound of a woodpecker doing his/her thing. I couldn’t see the bird, but I suspect it might be the great spotted woodpecker that’s been visiting my garden over the years, particularly in winter.

I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for the dead trees nearby that I think the woodpecker was creating the noise from.

With spring starting to show signs of finally arriving I’m hopeful that the local wildlife that hasn’t yet made itself known, will respond to the temperature rises and contribute to the wonderful season that we call spring.

Finally I’m hoping to get some images of the blue tits building their nest in time for the next blog post.