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.
They could have been disturbed, the nest attacked and they bolted early. If they did they would obviously be unable to get back into the nest. That may also explain why you have only seen evidence of 3.
Being able to fly doesn't stop cats killing birds. Often, it's the feeding adults that are killed, so the whole nest then fails. Blue tits can fly a bit when fledging, but obviously not fluently, so can be picked off quite easily by lots of predators incl cats. That's why their broods are large.
stealthybutnotthatstealthy said: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
I must confess I was very surprised to read these guidelines from such a well regarded organisation!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
edited as I was mistaken
Can't see where it was said that it was their cat involved, just 'a cat'
Sorry. I thought I read, "our cat". Maybe it got edited after my post. That or I was wrong. Either way, I've removed the post.
We do have a cat, but we kept her indoors when we knew the birds were on the ground. We also keep her indoors routinely overnight. Unfortunately, our neighbourhood is crawling with cats. I'm amazed that any birds can survive in such an environment.
Most young birds don't survive in such environments. A lot of breeding birds are spill overs from better habitats. We'd have lost 'our' song thrushes and blackbirds decades ago if they relied on breeding here. Thankfully, there are still quite a lot of good habitats in the area. Diminishes every year, and the loss of so many mature ash trees has compounded things.