The story of.....

Patio Nest Box 2012

The set-up.......

This nest box is made by 'Wildlife Wilndows' and is a professional system, with internal illumination, hence the great clarity of the images.

To find out more about this nest box, check out my page HERE.

This nest box is set up on an oak tree, just above my patio about half way up the garden. I removed the hole protector, as my blue tits seemed to be put off by it. They started building early April and this page will document their story....

The story so far.......

4th April - pm

The blue tits start by bringing dried grass into the nest box....

5th April

The moss starts arriving..... loads of it!

.... and loads by the end of the day!

A little moss in the morning

6th April

The blue tits bring in an enormous amount of moss throughout the day! They are almost disappearing in it all everytime they come in....

7th April

The blue tits continue to bring in moss and then towards the end of the day, this changes as softer, lining materials started to appear.

8th April

More, softer lining material is brought into the nest box and the cup starts to form ....

9th April

Less activity today, but it has been raining all day. At one point the female returned to the nest and spent a little while just sitting.... I wonder how long before we see our first egg?

10th April

More soft materials brought into the nest...

13th April

The female spends some time on the nest and appears to be panting... is she laying her first egg?? When she leaves, I cannot see anything, but the nest cup is very deep.

22nd April

15th April

19th April

It is still difficult to see how many eggs we have, but presume the femael will lay one a day before incubating.

My first glimpse of eggs! At least three there.... probably more. The female will lay one a day until the full clutch is laid. Then she will start incubating propoerly. This ensures that they all hatch at the same time.

The female's behaviour suggests she has started laying. She returns a couple of times a day and spends the night in the box. She often brings soft materials in and places them in the nest cup. These could be covering the eggs already laid.

27th April

11th May

12th May

The female starts incubating..... the time that has passed suugest at least 10 eggs, possibly more. Incubation is approximately 14 days.

The eggs start to hatch! The nest cup is so deep it is difficult to see how many chicks we have.

I catch glimpses of timy chicks and big gapes! The parents are soon bringing in lots of caterpillars.

15th May

13th May

The chicks gapes are really bright and now reaching higher than the deep nest cup so I can see them more clearly.

Watching closely, I think I counted at least 6 gapes. The parents are finding loads of bright green caterpillars and all the chicks appear to be feeding well.

16th May

18th May

17th May

The adults are very busy and there seem to be a healthy population of caterpillars in my patch! With the chicks feathers now forming and then getting larger, I count 7 in there....

The chicks are still obscured by nesting material....

Definitely at least six in there!

19th May

18th May

The chicks wing feathers are starting to emerge from the pins and their eyes are just opening.....

I count 8 hungry mouths!!!!

These chicks are growing in strength and their explosive resonse today were hilarious!

20th May

23rd May

22nd May

21st May

Eyes opening!

24th May

25th May

26th May

27th May

28th May

29th May

30th May

Ready to fledge... but it's too comfy in here!

Some start looking out....

A lot of activity and wing flapping.... they must go soon!

All ten chicks successfully fledged on 1st June when I was down in Wales visiting the Springwatch set! A fantastic achievement for these amazing blue tit parents!