THEY'VE FLEDGED THE NEST

A fully-fledged family

Like any proud parents the blue tits rightly proclaimed the emergence of five chicks after nearly three weeks in the nestbox.

I too felt proud of being able to provide the parents with extra food and, above all, a safe place to bring up their brood.

It's sad to see them go and I'll miss the daily alarm calls from the parents and the chattering of the chicks in the nest, but the next journey of their lives is now solely with mum and dad, and the big wide world.

I'm putting together a video of their nestbox lives which will be up over the weekend.

While filming the baby blue tits in the canopy of the tress (see video below) , waiting for the parents to bring them food, I also 'bumped' in to one of the local robin pairs. They too were introducing their chicks to the outside world and I'm confident of seeing more of them in the coming weeks.

Another set of parents with newly-fledged chicks is the dunnocks. The youngsters are seen foraging around the undergrowth, in much the same way their parents do. They too should stick around for a little bit.

The swallows are now loving the warm weather and can be seen all day scything through the air, grabbing mouthfuls of insects. They can mainly be seen around the house at dawn and dusk.

The blackbird chicks must have hatched as the mother has been seen today looking for food.

Back to the blue tits and the parents were looking rather tired and haggard, with their moult starting to take place.

They will now stay away from the spotlight and not emerge until they have grown a new set of feathers.

So a bitter-sweet morning for me as the blue tit chicks appeared to wait until I'd seen them before flying off to explore the area with their parents.

It's sad to see them go, but also a happy moment as they will hopefully come back later on in the year and rely on handouts during the cold winter months.

The next year one or more pairs will set up home again in my garden; this time I'll be ready with at least one camera nestbox.

I'll be continuing to feed mealworms to the birds and fill up the peanut feeders again. Fingers crossed I get some unusual visitors - a cuckoo, greater-spotted woodpecker or even a goldfinch.

Must also add that this year's Springwatch is very good so far!