great tit testing in an extremely dangerous place - what to do ?

Hello!  I have a little great tit who has been making a sweet nest in a terrifyingly dangerous place in my garden, about 1 metre 20 off the ground, close to where I have seen a rat, in the branches of some honeysuckle and ivy, and in fairly full view of any other predator.  It is also within about 2 metres of my back door/window.  I have jays who come into the garden, and there is not only my cat, but also the neighbour's cat when my dog doesn't chase it away fast enough.  When we move into April, there will also be full sun on the nest for a couple of hours in the late morning.  (There is not much sun yet, as there is a highish wall opposite the nesting place, so the sun needs to be a little higher in the sky to reach it.  We already have a nesting box in the garden, and perhaps this little great tit making the nest hatched from it last year as the box was used twice and I think we had about 7 little great tits in all.  

Yesterday, I quickly put up another nesting box at the bottom of the garden, in case she could be tempted to move.

What, do you think I should do?  Protect it as best as I can with prickly plastic stuff?  Go outside a lot and spend a bit of time there to put her off this dangerous spot, or leave her, and hope for the very best?

Thank you so much!

Alexandar

  • Yes, I think it is a great tit, but I probably didn't have my glasses on; so it perhaps could have been a blue tit because they like that part of the garden. They both seem to enjoy something on the buddleia which is just next to the nest. Do bluetits make that sort of nest? I ordered a bit more of the prickly stuff online so I thought I could wind it around a bit more and try and stop a rat and that would be great if they could just fly through it too. But perhaps, as it is so vulnerable, she will come to her senses, and make me happy by moving into the safe new house I put up!
  • Hi there, well just to say today I saw it really definitely is definitely a great tit. She came to the nest, and stayed a little while and did what she did the other day, pulled some feathers out. Another great tit was waiting on the buddleia. I suppose that the feather pulling is normal, but could I just pull a few out of a cushion and leave them in a handy place? (although I am still hoping that she will see the other nice new house and quickly move into it instead!))
  • Hi there, well just to say today I saw it really definitely is definitely a great tit. She came to the nest, and stayed a little while and did what she did the other day, pulled some feathers out. Another great tit was waiting on the buddleia. I suppose that the feather pulling is normal, but could I just pull a few out of a cushion and leave them in a handy place? (although I am still hoping that she will see the other nice new house and quickly move into it instead!)
  • What I did last year was take a fat ball feeder and filled it with feathers, moss from the garden and cat hair from when I had groomed the cat. You can use dog hair as well but NOT human hair as it may wind around legs etc and cause serious damage. Try this and hang it away from the nest they are building, but birds will be birds and will nest where they want to! Good luck.

  • Thank you so much, that is a lovely idea. I will do it right now. I have a kind of porcelaine thing designed to take wool for nests, and it is hanging up with the wool in, and I shall see if I can poke some nice little soft feathers in as well.