The video below was captured in late February. I have only seen single Blue Tits visit the box over the last few weeks, and just recently, I haven't seen either of them enter the box.
If you visit my camera nestbox blog, you may also know that our Blue Tit pair even started to build a nest in the box. Click here to see the posting about that. The pair visited the nestbox daily and looked like they would definitely nest there. I am not sure what changed their mind, but I do have some ideas. I think that the size of the nestbox hole will have made an impact. The size of the hole is 32mm (I think), and this might have put them off. The nestbox is also not sited anywhere near cover and is in obvious view.
The possibility that there were 2 pairs visiting (one pair in the camera nestbox, and one in the conservatory nestbox) did cross my mind. I don't think this can be true though as I haven't seen more than 2 Blue Tits in the garden at any one time since the end of January. Also, the ID of the pair which visited the camera nestbox, seems to be the same as the pair that is visiting the conservatory nestbox. Confusing stuff!
Over the last few days, nothing has entered our camera nestbox at all and plenty of nesting material is being carried into our conservatory nestbox. A quick look inside the Conservatory nestbox without disturbing the birds showed a nearly complete nest. The poor female has been working very hard, and I have seen her collect nesting material around the garden. She is very cautious when collecting material on the ground and is scared by the smallest of movements.
There are some positives about the nest site which has been chosen in the end. For starters the conservatory nestbox is fairly near cover, and hopefully it is quite safe from predation by cats, starlings, magpies, etc. Also, the nestbox can be seen very well from the office building, so I may be able to get some good video capture for you to see in the future. I just hope the parents will be able to find enough insects for the chicks in a month or so.
I think I will finish on some of our other garden birds. The Dunnock in the photos below is starting to become quite tame.
Our other garden birds are feeding frantically at the moment too, especially the House Sparrows and Chaffinches. I may post on these birds soon. But for now, good luck to all breeding birds in the UK this spring.
5 comments:
It is fun to see the various birds in your garden Joe. It never fails that the birds we want to nest in a certain box will choose another. Just a law of nature I guess. I wonder if they can feel you peering into that box even though it is with a camera??
Hi again Joe:-)
Sorry to hear that it looks like your new camera nestbox won’t be used this year. Don’t give up hope though – the Blue tits could change their minds yet!
Lovely shots of the Dunnock. Have a good week – hope your studies are going well :-D
Those Blue Tits are certainly very fussy when it comes to 'house buying', lets hope they get settled soon.
I loved your Dunnock photos. I have never seen them use feeders, sometimes the bird table, but usually scuttling around under bushes etc. I have never managed to get a photo so far either, well done Joe!
The best laid plans are undone by nesting birds. ;-)
My mother put up a lovely new wren house one year only to have the wrens make their home in an old watering can that was laying on its side on a stone wall.
Hi Lisa, Shirl, Shysongbird and Dawn:
Lisa- Yes, the comings and goings of the birds in the garden are certainly interesting to watch. You are right about the nestboxed too. Before last year, none of our nestboxes were used, and natural sites were chosen. At least I have been able to capture videos like that in the posting though :-)
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Shirl- Thank you, at least I have managed to capture some videos from this year. A Blue Tit did enter the camera nestbox just a couple of days ago, but later on that day, I saw a Blue Tit take a big mouthful of nesting material into the other nestbox. Ah well, there's always next year! Have a good easter.
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Shysongbird- Yes, you're right, they have been VERY fussy about their nesting site. They even took a peek in our 2 other nestboxes. However, if they have a better chance of nesting successfully in our non-camera nestbox, I won't worry too much that they aren't using our camera nestbox- if that makes sense!
Interesting to hear about how your garden Dunnocks feed. In our garden, it is only really the Robins, Magpies, Blackbirds and Collared Doves that visit the bird table.
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Dawn- Thank you for the comment - I know what you mean! Yes, Wrens have a bit of a habit of choosing strange places to nest. I reckon it would be hard to tempt a pair into a nestbox.
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