I just had a successful nesting of blue-tits in my nest box with a brilliant wireless camera. I monitored the days from laying to hatching to fledging, all on time. 6 chicks successfully left the box yesterday morning. I didn’t see all them go, but I did see the last one leave the box, flutter to the bush below then flutter a bit further to another bush. All of this within half an hour of the first one leaving the box. Since then, not a single sign of the chicks in the garden, nothing. The parents do not seem to be around calling to them and they do not seem to be taking food from the feeder to feed chicks. Occasionally a blue-tit comes to the feeder then flies far away. I don’t understand how 6 chicks could have completely disappeared. I have to say that there was one squirrel close by and a magpie. Could they have predated 6 chicks all at the same time? I kept my eye on the bush where one of them flew, no predators, no parents, no chick calling for food, nothing.
This nest was interesting from the beginning this year. The pair of birds laid 8 eggs and began to incubate. However, after only a few days of in incubating, there seemed to be a battle for the nest. I am assuming a new female took over. She did not want the eggs though, she pushed them all under the nesting material, out of sight and proceeded to lay her own 6 eggs, which are the subject above. I am also assuming it was the same male, but not certain, of course. So the nest box will have 8 unhatched eggs in it. Is this unusual?
Hi Laura, I have spent the weekend protecting my fledged blue tit chicks from cars and magpies, I thought they had all fledged but this morning there were two more on the lawn with the parents landing alongside to feed them and encourage them but it looks like neither is strong enough to fly. One amazing thing was my cat escaped its house arrest and went towards one of them and was immediately buzzed and hassled by a parent, unbelievably brave behaviour, cats back indoors! I did see a couple of fledglings fly off with parents. So poss this mornings are the runts….? Sad seeing the parents fuss so much but they do it every year…. It’s nature
Hi miles k. Thanks for your quick reply. The thing is, there is virtually no parent activity in the garden or neighbouring gardens since they fledged, other than an adult appearing and the nut feeder from time to time.
I did notice yesterday morning that these brave little birds were haranguing a magpie just out of my sight, but not that far from the nest box. Also the squirrel was running along the top of the fence - I tried chasing both away, maybe I was too late, but 6 little fledglings at once? I don't understand where the only one I saw disappeared also - it flew into the middle of my garden into a rhododendron bush and I kept my eye on the bush all morning - no parent visited it and from what I could see, no predator. It's such a disappointing mystery.
I meant to come back with an update... sorry it has taken so long. The good news is that after a day of almost total silence from blue-tit parents and/or chicks they all started to reappear in the trees, shrubs and bushes in and around the garden. The bird feeding station became busy with parents first then for the next couple of weeks, chicks as well. I have no real way of knowing if it was the family from my nest box, but I would like to think they were - safely fledged and nurtured. I'm still getting the occasional one or two coming to the feeder.
In the meantime I have been worried about the 8 unhatched eggs so carefully opened the box after making sure there were no visits at all since the fledge. I found 7 of the unhatched eggs - one had imploded.
Hopefully we will have another successful nesting period in 2025 - I'm loving my cam and box - Nestera.