Borders Birds

Day 21: All Gone!

2009-06-09T08:55:00.003+01:00

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

2009-06-08T20:15:00.000+01:00

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

2009-06-07T19:50:00.000+01:00

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!

2009-06-06T19:43:00.005+01:00

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

2009-06-05T21:57:00.003+01:00

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

2009-06-04T19:37:00.001+01:00

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

2009-06-03T22:02:00.004+01:00

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

2009-06-02T21:15:00.001+01:00

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!

2009-06-01T19:44:00.004+01:00

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

2009-05-31T20:00:00.001+01:00

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

Day 10

2009-05-29T21:13:00.000+01:00

It is now ten days since the first egg hatched. One nestling is ten days old, five of them are nine days old, and one of them is 8 days old.

Ted with the brood.

The weather was nice and hot today with a bright cloudless sky, and while that is good for me it's not so good for the web cam!

With it being so warm, and with the sun directly on the box until late morning, our little not-quite-so-feathered friends started to spread out a bit to help cool themselves down a bit...

The one at the bottom is almost out of the nest cup...

Up and out! Two nestlings have made it out...

but they soon spring back in when they hear food coming!

It must be quite warm in there with all those bodies huddled together...

so out they pop again! The one at the top looks like a mini oven-ready chicken!

Ted did a double take when he came back in; it was the first time he'd seen them out of the cup. And this time the escapees don't bother going back in...

because they can beg for food just as easily from over here, too!

Meg and Ted are now making use of the sunflower hearts from the garden...

They spent most of the afternoon back in the nest cup, with a few of them venturing out every now and again.

Full house!

They jump up so quickly when food arrives; it's like an explosion of blue tits!

This can't be comfortable for anyone!

Meg eventually came in to brood the babies just after 9pm. I don't think she'll have a very comfortable night!

Day 9

2009-05-28T19:28:00.000+01:00

Everything in the nest box seems to be going well at the moment.

All babies are accounted for...

Their feathers are well on the way...

Their wing feathers are starting to develop...

And sometimes, all of a sudden, it looks really crowded in there...
but when they settle down they look small again. And a bit grumpy.

Day 7

2009-05-26T19:25:00.001+01:00

It has been a week now since the first blue tit hatched, though most of the eggs hatched the following day.

Some images from today...

Ted & Co.

Meg doesn't always look quite as comfortable as she used to! She doesn't spend as much time brooding them during the day now, though.

All seven nestlings are clearly visible here. You should be able to make out their eyes just starting to open.

This nestling is doing what is necessary to keep the nest clean!

Open wide! One nestling gets a mouthful!

Meg goes into defensive mode. I didn't see what it was, but whatever it was, wasn't there long - just a few seconds. And the babies are well hidden!

By the afternoon, I noticed two of the nestlings seemed to be quite a bit less responsive to the arrival of food. One in particular looked quite lethargic. He or she did pick up a little by early evening.

If the image isn't too dark, here you should be able to make out some mini-wings...

Meg keeping the place clean again.

6 of 7

The family shot!

Yikes!

Day 4

2009-05-23T20:00:00.003+01:00

There was an extra early start to the day for our blue tit family today - Ted arrived with breakfast at 4:15am. The nest box lights didn't go on until the more reasonable hour of 7:45am!

We quickly get to see a family portrait today - all 9 members (one gape closed at the back).

Meg does a little a bit of housework.

Digging deep.

And she also takes time out to keep herself looking good!

Do we have a visitor coming?

We do! Who can it be...?
It's Ted, of course!

Ted has a turn feeding the babies. He nearly always feeds from the left. Meg tends to feed from the front or from the right.

Meg still takes charge of feeding if she's there when Ted comes in with food.

But he gets his chance when she's away from the nest.

Ted also does his fair share of cleaning up. One of the babies has upturned itself here ready to produce a faecal sac (bag of poo). The parents take the sac away from the nest and drop it outside.

Ted.
Meg.

Ted!

Meg!

Meg often does the wing-flutter when Ted brings the food in.

Seven mouths greet Ted.

And the same for Meg as soon as she appears at the entrance.

Feeding was still going on at 8pm when I turned the lights off. That's a loooong day!

A pretty uneventful day in the nest box - just the way I like it!

Day 3 (and 4... and 2!)

2009-05-22T23:30:00.000+01:00

It was day three for most of our hatchling blue tits today and everything seems okay so far. I've not had time to go through all of the images from today so I've just pulled out a small random selection.

I did make sure all family members were accounted for, though!

Meg and baby!

The pink wriggling mass.

Hungry mouths.

Strrrreeeetch!

Haven't managed to get all seven gapes in one picture yet, but hopefully I'll manage to get one soon.

Ted's turn for a picture this time.

Poor little Bashful. He's the one in a horizontal position at the back of the nest. He gets pushed around quite a bit!

Day 2

2009-05-21T19:39:00.002+01:00

Looking at the playback of captured images, the first feed of the day happened at 5:35am when Ted arrived with a caterpillar. He tried to feed the babies himself several times in the first hour but he never managed to let go of the food. Meg was there on a couple of occasions and took the food off him and gave it to the babies herself.

The laptop and box lights went on at 7:43am to reveal Meg sitting comfortably on the nest.

Ted arrives a minute later with food - so that's both parents accounted for! Now how long will it be before I can do a proper head count of the babies?

Can't do one this time, but what we can see is that the seventh egg, so far, remains unhatched.

Meg quickly steps aside when she hears Ted arriving, giving us a decent view of the nest cup. It can be surprisingly hard to count the babies at this stage because they just appear as a mass of pinkness - but I am pretty sure I can see all six chicks.

Meg

Ted with some grub - but still not letting it go!

Ted again. And he did let go this time! Success!

Meg's here this time, so she's back in charge of feeding. Ted does take great interest though!

The babies don't have much control of their bodies at the moment, of course, so they are mostly flailing all around the nest cup.

By the afternoon, the thing obstructing the images really started to get on my nerves. It had moved a bit lower down and, as it was quite breezy, was blowing constantly from left to right - and was now low enough to cover the nest cup. It was like having something in your eye that you couldn't quite get rid of! A quick poke through the entrance hole made it a bit more bearable.

Meg begs for the food brought in by Ted.

Egg number seven is still unhatched.

A big mouthful for the baby at the bottom!

What's going on here?

Ah, only Ted!

At 5:50pm we can see the seventh egg still appears unhatched under the pink wriggling bodies.

But just two minutes later and I think I can make out seven babies here...

Yes! Look! Just before 6pm Meg brings out a broken eggshell!

There's our final chick right there in the middle - quite a bit smaller than his siblings.

So there we have it. We now have seven babies: Doc, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Grumpy, Dopey and, finally, Bashful!

Our last chick could have quite a battle on his hands in the fight for food.

6 Hatchlings and 1 Egg

2009-05-20T19:30:00.000+01:00

(Something is obscuring the images slightly at the moment - just below where it says bordersbirds and extending down to the start of the nest cup. I think it's something right in front of the camera lens. If it hasn't gone by the weekend I'll poke something through the entrance hole to try and remove it. Meg isn't away from the nest enough for me to do it at the moment and I don't want to spook her unnecessarily).

Our first clear view of the nest cup this morning shows that there are now four hatchlings and three unhatched eggs.

Ted arrives with some food while Meg is out...
'Feed me, Dad!'

...rather than feed them himself, he waits for Meg to return so that he can pass the food onto her. She ate it herself this time, though!

Another view showing the four babies
And another.

At 10:41am egg number five hatches... the half-shell just visible at the bottom of the nest cup...

And out it goes... Some shells she has eaten, and some she has removed from the nest box.

Five hatchlings (honest! there's two at the back).

Meg checks out the latest baby. Two eggs still to go...

A mound of brand new pink blobs.

Almost an hour after the last one - it's now 11:38am and we can see egg number six is partially hatched...

...ten past twelve now... and after being pushed from pillar to post he's still not out...

Come on, Number 6!

At last!! Egg number 6 hatches at 12:51pm. Ted removes the shell from the nest this time.

Six hatchlings and one unhatched egg.

A hungry mouth wants feeding.

Ted has just delivered a meal and has passed it over to Meg who then delivers it straight to one of the babies. He's had a go at feeding them by this time, but doesn't quite get that he needs to let go of the food once he's put it inside the baby bird's gape.

Half three now and no sign of the last egg hatching.

Ted gets a lesson on how to feed the babies. He'll need to learn soon because it won't be long before Meg is off out hunting for food for them too.

Almost half six now and egg number 6 remains unhatched.

It's quite usual for the last egg to hatch a day after all the others, so will be have seven hatchlings tomorrow morning or are we sticking at six?

Hatching Started!

2009-05-19T20:06:00.000+01:00

(I posted earlier saying we were still waiting... then the first egg hatched about five minutes after I published the post! That post has been deleted but I'll show the pictures here because they're quite nice)

A nice shot of Meg and Ted this afternoon

And one of Meg hearing Ted just outside the box

Anyway, to the important stuff... 5:03pm and all is normal - I'd just about given up for the day by now which is why I posted saying we were still waiting...

but just four minutes later...

First view of a partially-hatched egg was at 5:07pm (hopefully not too dark for most screens).
It's a girl! Or a boy! Our first pink blob!

When Ted arrived at 5:20pm there was much wing-flapping from Meg who then quickly moved aside to show him the new arrival...

And then came the first shot of a teeny tiny hungry gape... (that's Ted next to the nest - Meg is at the entrance hole).

Ted sprung into action as soon as he saw the new hatchling. He was lightening fast bringing tiny green caterpillars in for Meg to feed her baby with.

Another offering for Meg - this one looks a bit big!

A clear view of the nest cup at 7:13pm shows just one egg hatched so far.

So, there we go! At last we have a hatchling! Hopefully the rest will follow tomorrow.

Almost Done

2009-05-15T18:30:00.001+01:00

I didn't mean to leave it so long before doing a little update - but I ~~forgot my password so couldn't log in~~ have had some very complicated technical issues ;o)

Ted is arriving at around 5:30am each morning to feed Meg and he then makes a few more visits throughout the day.

Meg sitting pretty. She has been sitting so still that I have often had to check the clock is still ticking over to make sure the live feed hasn't crashed!

Turning the eggs.
While she's on a short break we get chance to check the eggs...
Looking rather comfortable.

A little later on and Meg, who has been out in the rain, returns to the box a bit soggy.
Dry again
Grabbed an image just before lights off

All being well, the eggs should hatch early next week.

Still Sitting

2009-05-10T14:53:00.002+01:00

All is well - and very quiet - and it looks like Meg has a little collection of feathers going on!

Cute!

2009-05-08T17:35:00.000+01:00

Seven Eggs!

2009-05-07T16:12:00.001+01:00

A seventh egg! I wasn't really eggspecting that this morning (I know, the old ones are... the oldest).

Ted and the eggs.

The seventh egg was laid at around 5am.

Meg was off the eggs from the time she first left the box at 5:09am until 11:14am. Between these times she made several quick visits, as did Ted, but made no attempt to sit on the eggs.

One of Meg's quick visits just before 10am. She brought in some dried grass.
Ted arrives half an hour later - with a small caterpillar - but Meg isn't in.

She's never far behind, though - she came in a few seconds after Ted left. This time she's brought some more lining with her.

Meg settles down on the eggs for the first time since 5am this morning.

And it's not long until she gets comfortable enough for a nap

Ted comes along with a snack - another green caterpillar - just before 1pm.

And he continued, on and off, to bring food in for the rest of the day.

Meg was on the eggs for the whole of the afternoon, taking just a few short breaks. She was much more settled today - yesterday she was quite fidgety.

So, if yesterday was the first day of incubation we're look at around Monday 18 May for hatching day.

Incubation Started!

2009-05-06T19:40:00.003+01:00

We still have six eggs and Meg has decided to start incubating her clutch. Blue tits often lay one last egg the day after incubation starts, but it's not a definite so we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out. As a final egg would mean two eggless days, I'd guess the chance of a seventh is pretty slim.

Ted with some food for Meg

Try again in about 12 days, Ted!

What should he do with it?

Ah! Meg arrives just in time. She'll have it!

She then settles down for a while

And it's not long at all until Meg gets her next snack

Ted arrives while Meg is away again. He waited patiently but eventually gave up and scoffed it himself.

She's in residence this time!

Meg can hear Ted calling. He made two quick food visits after this

And then it was bedtime

The longest Meg stayed away from the nest was 59 minutes - 16:41 until 17:40

Half Dozen

2009-05-05T10:28:00.002+01:00

Six eggs this morning!

Edit:

A better view this afternoon as she's left them uncovered

Man Alive - Number Five!

2009-05-04T14:17:00.008+01:00

Egg number five arrived this morning following Meg's day off yesterday. This is the only clear view of all the eggs today... they were obscured by feathers after this. It's a bit dark!

Meg on one of her frequent, but quick, visits to make sure the eggs are safe

Ted arrives at 16:30 with a tiny green caterpillar

He looks all around the nest cup

What, no hungry mouths?

Looking deep inside

Seems like he's waiting for a taker

They're not ready for it yet, Ted!

They need to hatch first!

As none of the eggs seemed hungry, he eventually ate it himself

A bit eager, maybe, but perhaps also a sign that he'll be a good dad!