Hello,
Until yesterday evening there was activity around my blue tit box and chirping from within. Today - nothing. Is there a chance that they could have fledged? I thought it was too early. Should I check the box?
Thank you.
Hi Juliet, no, you should not approach the nest as it is classed as against wildlife laws to interfere with nests of wild birds ... it is possible that they have fledged and quickly moved on with their parents who are searching for foodstuffs for them! You can clean out your birdbox at the end of the season around September!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Hi, activity stopped completely in our box yesterday so I checked today. All fledged! The earliest I've known them to fledged from our boxes is 28th May so 17th May a record for us.
\its not a game! Why couldn't you just follow the guidelines and leave the nest alone until the end of the breeding season.
Very surprised to find this on BTO site ... apparently we've been too harsh with our advice ...
www.bto.org/.../code-conduct
You didn't say you had a camera in your nestbox ... so pleased that there was a successful fledge as so many folk have been reporting losses so far this season!
Yes but BTO advice is for counting towards research is it not ?
I’ll send this again.
Regards,
Ian.
I do wonder whether it's BTO policy, or just one or two individual BTO staff/volunteers who've created that policy using their opinions. When I've dealt with BTO, it always seems to be the person I'm dealing with is giving their own opinion without any escalation or supervision.
Our bluetits fledged three days ago on 18 May . There were three of them and appeared very far off from being able to fly. The parents fed them frequently as they hid in the undergrowth. They got through the night, but then two disappeared and one was found dead with a puncture wound; probably a cat. My question is why did they fledge so early when they were clearly nowhere near ready to fly up to relative safety?