Hi. We have lost the father of a brood of 8 blue tit chicks we moniter by camera. Will the mother manage to feed them on her own. Can we help brood survival chances or do we let nature carry on ? Appreciate help or view.
Thanks Tippy
Hi Tippy,
sorry I missed your posts, I haven't been around as much as I'd have liked this week.
I'm glad to hear your Blue Tits are doing well. Even though it must be incredibly hard work for the female its a huge benefit that she has the food from your garden and natural foods to help.
Keep us informed :o)
Nature can be uplifting but heart breaking too. All 8 chicks were doing well but the female just like the male flew into an open glass door and was killed. I had to dispatch the chicks as I could not face leaving them to starve to death and am into day two of deep depression and sadness. The glass door had been opened to put netting across it to avoid this happening but she has been so focused feeding I think her natural protective ways might well have been blunted. The high chick casualty rate we usually do not see but of course particularly with the likes of Blue Tits the high rate is the reason they raise such big broods. Does not make me feel any better but reminds me how the gift of nature can just be so cruel.
Tippy
Oh Tippy
I feel so sad for you. I had a family of wrens last year that I was monitoring and all 6 babies were taken by, I think, Magpies. You get really attached to them , don't you, when you watch them growing. Heartbreaking when something like that happens.
My advice is to focus on the wonderful things that happen in nature and put it behind you. I attach for you my favourite photo I took in April of this little Goldfinch enjoying the sunshine.
Big sympathetic hug
Pipit xx
Tippy you couldn't have done more - a very sad outcome for you, to see the loss of not only Mum & Dad but their chicks as well must be devastating. I'm so sorry.
I hope you are comforted by the goldfinch pipit has uploaded, what a little darling.
M