Hi Natasha, photos would be lovely to see. From what I have read before, the birds will be okay and be looked after and fledge okay.
I would leave things alone but keep an eye on them. Hopefully they will grip onto the wood inside and gradually jump fly towards the entrance where they see their parents go to exit.
Thanks for your replies! Unfortunatley the gate post is smooth metal so I'm worried they may not be able to grip.
Photo:
www.instagram.com/.../BFmgLSlnmKx
I suspect the inside of the post will not be as smooth as the outside. I have known nests fledge from similar positions with no trouble.
Geez that looks steep!
Tit fledglings can usually fly quite well when they leave the nest (they need to because of nesting in holes in sheer tree trunks) so they should be OK to get out with a combination of scrambling and flapping.
what happened with this nest, have the youngsters fledged?
Hi everyone, so here is the final outcome of the great tit nest in the gate post.
Unfortunately it was not a happy ending.
I was monitoring the chicks every other day by poking in a small camera and taking a photo. 4 chicks remained and looked very healthy, with a little fluff, so still not quite ready to fledge. I stopped checking on the birds so regularly as I didn’t want to spook them into fledging too early.
At some point I did a check and noticed the gate post stank. I looked inside to find just one chick left! The chick looked in such bad condition I initially thought it was another bird entirely. She was living on 3 rotting corpses and was covered in dirt and flies, but very much alive. On the advice of a local animal ambulance worker we decided to intervene and rescue the remaining chick. So we hung a nest box (including a nest inside the box) right next to the gate post, and managed to fish out the chick with a net on a stick.We popped her inside the nest box and watched from a distance; thankfully the mama bird continued feeding and tending to her chick in the new box after just a few minutes. Sadly though, the final chick had died by the next morning.
Aw that is such a shame Natasha, especially after you tried to help the last baby. Sad as it is, that's nature sometimes.
Well, as Catlady says, sometimes animals have to learn the hard way which are appropriate nesting places and which are not. Shame for the little ones not making it despite their mother's and your efforts though. Is it practical to leave the newly installed nest box next to the gate post for next year - or maybe a repeat attempt to start a family by the parents this year?