First images

Presumably you can guess what this posting is going to be about based on the title. My new camera nestbox has now been put up on our house, and I we have seen the first video pictures of it. We put it up last weekend, so that it was there for birds to inspect the box well before the breeding season. My dad managed to get a long ladder from our neighbour in order to put the nestbox on the wall of the house. It was a difficult job, as it was a windy day and he had to drill a hole through the house wall to get the cable through. But hopefully it will pay off...

I'm not sure I can believe this, but I think we have already had a visitor to our camera nestbox. I didn't see the bird (presumably a Blue Tit) as I was at school, but I have noticed a difference inside the nestbox. Before we put it up, we put wood shavings at the bottom of the box so as to keep any roosting birds warm. The wood shavings appear to have been moved and shuffled around. Please take a look at the video below and see what you think! The video you see won't be as good quality as the one I will be able to view, however, you should still be able to see it clearly enough. Also, you will notice that the video is in black and white. This is because it was dark when recording both clips, and the camera was using the infra-red lights to light up the box.



Now that I have watched the version of the video that you will see, I can see that the image is very unclear. It is not the case for me, and believe me, there is definitely a difference in the wood shavings at the bottom of the nestbox. So, assuming it was a Blue Tit, it looks like a nestbox inspection has taken place, to check out nest sites for the breeding season. Admittedly, there is little disruption of the nestbox floor, so it looks like the bird was probably not there for long. I also wonder if a male and a female visited... I hope so!

I wonder if other people are currently getting birds checking out their nestboxes. It certainly does seem early in the year for birds to be investigating nest sites. Its only mid-January and nest-building is unlikely to begin until at least mid-March. Or, was the bird that visited looking for a roosting site? If so, the "Blue Tit" decided not to use it tonight, because the box is currently empty.

Tomorrow, before I go to school, I think I will leave the computer to record the nest box. This way, I will be able to check later on if anything has visited. From past experience, I have found that the birds will tend to visit the nestbox quite frequently before nest building if that nest site is popular with the parent birds. So hopefully, they should visit again soon-fingers and toes crossed.

Finally I must buy some mealworms soon. They become life-savers in the breeding season, but will still be popular at this time of year. I find, that the live mealworms (if a little wriggly and awkward) seem to be better for the birds to feed on. I tend to buy the live mealworms over the Internet as they are difficult to find elsewhere (scary to think that boxes of worms are in the post!) I'd be interested to know where you get your bird food from. I recommend www.birdfood.co.uk. Most of their products have been recommended by the BTO (as they used to be in partnership) and they have a wide range of products. The website is definitely worth a look.

Video taken in my camera nestbox on 13th January 2009