Hello dear all,
Over the last month or so, a pair of Great Tits has decided to nest on our balcony. We rescued the female, presumably, last year after she got entangled in some microplastics she had used to build her nest in the same box. On some of the pictures you can see her missing the toes of her right claw. A few decent pictures were taken, and I figured the Great Tit community would enjoy them.
Cheers, Bas.
Hello Robin, The perch worked like a charm, especially for the somewhat handicapped lady. Had a piece of a treebranch at first, which worked, but got destroyed by a heavy bird hanging on it too often. Faulty construction I guess, so I replaced it with the piece of scrap wood. My luck came from my neighbour who feeds the general bird population almost year round with bread and sometimes mealworms. She also has two cats that frequently linger around. The cats cannot climb onto my balcony though. Pigeons are lining up in the morning, waiting for her to wake up. Past two winters I fed nuts and fat which, I think, drew the attention to the bird house itsself. The first nestbuilding period didn't end so well as you may have read in the opening post. I was very exited when I noticed the female seemed to have returned to the place she had had a terrifying experience. Not sure she remembers though...;o), as the second nest also contained artificial fibers. I removed most of the artificial fibers to prevent a repeat of last year. During nestbuilding I didn't add anything and when I noticed the eggs I immediately started feeding live worms in the little bucket next to the perch. I believe it was appreciated in general, gave great photos and views, however got raided by jackpaws and magpies as well. Not good. I then removed nuts, fat and peanuts completely, added a second bucket to the ground and left the upper mostly empty. Only early morning and evening I used it when I could be present myself to guard it. To the filled bucket on the ground I added a gentle trap with a very simple trap door/seesaw style construction which would hinge when a heavy bird would step on it, create noise and movement and hopefully scare them (magpies and jackpaws) into not approaching the filled lower bucket. It would not hinge/tumble with a great tit size bird. Worked great. This kept mealworm losses to a minimum and gave the pair more peace and quiet by allowing the tits to continue feeding without attracting unwanted visitors to the immediate vicinity of the nest. As you noticed, it also created a great photo-opportunity. Hope you all enjoyed those. Cheers, Bas