WILDLIFE CAN BE SO CRUEL

After nearly two weeks of hearing the blue tit chicks chirping whenever the parents brought food to them, yesterday is all went quiet apart from one single chick, who seemed to be calling  for its parents.

Suddenly there was no sign of the parents and my concern grew this morning when silence greeted the mealworm breakfast I’ve been leaving out for the local birds to help with parenting.

Robins, house sparrows, blue tits and great tits have been making use of the mealworm donation.

Mid-morning I opened the nest box, confident the parents had left the nest for good, and was saddened by what greeted me.

A couple of days ago I’d noticed a couple of flies entering the nest and wondered if one of the chicks had died.

Unfortunately when I opened the nest box there was five chicks that had died, a couple seemed close to fledging while others seemed to have been slightly younger when they died.

As to the reasons for them dying it remains unsolved; I suspect four reasons.

1 – One or both parents were predated, although I think this unlikely as they were around yesterday and it’s rare to see a sparrowhawk in the local vicinity.

2 – Disease took hold and the chicks sadly succumbed over time.

3 – The parents didn’t bring in enough food, which again seems unlikely given the mealworm supplements.

4 – The parents fledged a couple of chicks but the others were too far behind and the parents left with the few older ones.

I guess it’ll remained unsolved, but it’s the first time a nest has failed this much.

While carrying out the nest investigations I could hear a couple of buzzards circling above, soaring on the thermals and not a crow or rook harassing them.

The robin nest, in the previous wren nest box, appears to be viable, although I remain sceptical there will be successful hatching of this nest

Perhaps they’ll surprise me, although what is surprising is the house sparrows who are paying close attention to the triple nest box, again I don’t think they have nested there this year, but could be wrong.

Finally the swallows seem to be on eggs, while the blackbird nest hasn’t had any sign of chicks being fed – maybe next week.