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Thurs
1st May...Incubation continues, the female sitting for
all but a few breaks in each hour of daylight. The male
is feeding her regularly with grubs, a few blossom buds
and what appears to be powdered peanuts from the feeder.
Here she is seen with her head deep in the nest, turning
and moving the eggs. This probably ensures even warming
of the clutch, something that is done manually in an artificial
incubator for chicks on a farm. |
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Friday
2nd May....Midnight ; note the darker image, even with
infra-red illumination. The female is fast asleep and
hasn't moved for 20 minutes. Her breathing is only just
visible on a movie. As the weather is so cold and wet,
I have made a makeshift mealworm feeder from plastic bottles
to increase the amount of live food available to the male
in the territory. Incubation continues and should take
around 14 days if everything goes well. |
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Wednesday
7th May...The female is struggling to eat a particularly
large and tough mealworm here. She had to stand up and
gulp for several seconds before it went down fighting!
The male is finding plenty of food for her, mostly grubs
and caterpillars from a nearby apple tree. He made in
excess of 100 visits to the nestbox today. Incubation
continues safely so far and hatching may be expected
from perhaps Sunday
11th May if all goes well, probably later.
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Friday
9th May...The nest is being compressed under the weight
and activity of the incubating female. The cup is now
very clearly defined and deep. She has started to import
more soft and feathery material. She even appeared with
three loads of very bright red scarlet fleece this morning
which makes me wish we had a colour camera. The male continues
with feeding her an almost 100% diet of grubs and caterpillars
with no flying insects or spiders noted. It's getting
very close to the time of hatching. |
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SUNDAY
11th May...right on time, hatching commenced early this
morning. Four, or possibly five nestlings are visible
and active. The female is removing a large piece of eggshell
from the box here. She eats small pieces of the shell
herself, recovering important minerals lost during egg
formation and laying. |
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SUNDAY
11th May...the female feeding a broken piece of grub
to a nestling. The male is still doing all the food
gathering and the female a mixture of incubating and
brooding to keep the tiny (18mm long) naked nestlings
warm. He presents a grub to the female and they gently
tug it into bits to feed the minute open mouths or 'gapes.'
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SUNDAY
11th May...In the absence of both parents, a nestling
is gaping with an obvious diamond shaped mouth inviting
feeding from a visiting parent. The mouth or 'gape' is
circled in green and perhaps 7mm across. |
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SUNDAY
11th May...Don't eat your lunch before reading this! For
several days after hatching the female consumes any waste
from the nestlings. Here she is removing and eating a
'packet of poo' coloured very obviously white from the
nestling presenting its rear end. By doing this, the adults
ensure minimal infestation from flies and parasites and
ensure the nest site is as clean and healthy as it can
be. |
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MONDAY
12th May...The image shows the hatched nestlings tucked
up together in the nest cup. Click on the picture to
download a 2
Mb timelapse film showing the female brooding and the
nestlings movement. There appears to be at least one
egg still to hatch though counting up the birds is just
about impossible. When they become more active in about
a week you will be able to count open beaks begging
to be fed.
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MONDAY
12th May.... I've tried to enlarge an image and highlight
some features. The male is feeding one nestling on the
left. The white diamond shape circled in orange is the
open beak or gape which induces the male to gently place
food inside. Below, the two dark bulges are the eyes which
are currently closed. On the right I have outlined another
nestling in blue to indicate the size in comparison with
an adult head. The nestlings are completely naked and
feather development will slowly start to take place having
hatched. |
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MONDAY
12th May, 10pm.... A change to behaviour in the pair.
For the first time the male is now roosting in the box
with the female. Whether this is a strategy to increase
the warmth within the nest area or part of the importance
of pair-bonding I don't know. It's a bit unscientific
to say it, but it's rather sweet now that the eggs have
hatched. |
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WEDNESDAY
14th May, 10am...The nestlings are already larger and
being fed regularly. In spite of the stormy cold weather,
at least eight appear to have survived so far and appear
equally active. I can see no evidence of the ninth and
know that the egg had not hatched by Monday night. It
may be at the bottom of the nest or have been removed
by the parents. I have copied the nest cup and circled
each mouth in red in the top right hand corner. Eight
mouths are visible. |
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FRIDAY
16th May...The nestlings are now capable of a more varied
diet. The adults found a supply of flies this afternoon
and they were able to feed the brood at least 50 in under
an hour. Here both parents have returned at the same time
with a fly each which is swallowed whole. |
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FRIDAY
16th May...The female is finding brooding the nestlings
less easy. They are very active and fill the nest. She
has to lean to one side and cover them with a wing very
often, though they still push through. The nestlings are
very likely to be affected by cold and starving in difficult
weather and often many die. So far, in spite of the wind
and rain, the family is doing well. |
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SUNDAY 18th May 8am.....A quick beak count shows at least
eight survivors now one week old. Seven heads on the left
of the nest and one under a piece of grass on the right.
They are all seriously demanding and bad weather is not
stopping a regular food supply being brought to the nest.
The nestlings heads are about the size of their entire
body at hatching so they are growing fast. The dark lines
on their backs and heads is the start of feather development. |
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TUESDAY
3rd June...The cold and wet weather, possibly combined
with disease within the nestbox caused a catastrophic
loss of the nestlings. After eight days, the numbers
of survivors dwindled daily in ones and twos. By Wednesday
21st May a single nestling, strong, healthy and well
fed by the parents remained. The weather stayed cold
and wet. In spite of careful roosting by the parents
and plentiful feeding, this last chick died a day later.
The photograph shows the last carcass in decay some
10 days later. The suspected 9th egg that did not hatch
is also now revealed. It is a sad fact, though true,
that the mortality rate of such small birds is very
high. The slightest drop in temperature, increase in
rain, or loss of food can have enormous problems for
the birds. This is why they lay so many eggs in the
hope that one or two at least survive. In this case,
unfortunately, none did. The parents are still defending
their territory though are very unlikely to attempt
to breed again, and within two or three days, neither
returned to the box. Perhaps next year they will try
again. Local news from friends shows that similar failures
have occurred in many Blue Tit boxes.
On
a brighter note, there are at least three successful
Great Tit boxes on the Christ Church site, the one over
the boiler house chimney producing at least 7 young.
There are also three Magpie nests, a Mistle Thrush,
four Carrion Crow, seven known Robin, and 16 House Sparrow
nests all either successful or near to fledging. Most
interestingly, a group of Bullfinches was seen today,
3 juveniles just fledged, a male and a female. This
has not been recorded locally to Christ Church before.
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