Last year we were lucky enough to follow the fortunes of a pair of breeding blue tits in one of our nest boxes and we were hoping we might be able to do the same this year. Our fabulous volunteers got boxes and cameras ready. Now all we needed was a cast.
On the 10 March this blue tit was seen checking out one of our nest boxes…
The female started to build a nest and was also spotted collecting the alpaca wool hanging up near our feeders and this was how things looked on 15 April…
You can see there were at least 4 eggs that Mrs Blue Tit had already laid and covered over. Typically blue tits will lay one egg a day, usually in the morning, and won’t start incubating them until the day before laying is finished and the clutch is complete. Blue tits lay on average on average 8 to 12 eggs.
Our blue tit eventually settled to incubate 9 eggs in the tidiest of nests…
By 2 May hatching was well underway…
And the pair began the arduous task of feeding their hungry young…
To date we have counted 8 hungry chicks with gaping mouths that are starting to sport punk hairdo’s and you can just see the flight feathers beginning to grow on the wings…
You can watch their progress LIVE in our Visitor Centre over a cup of coffee.