Make your mind up!

Today, is mostly a day of relaxation for me, as I took some more GCSE exams on Friday, the long revision sessions are over now until my next maths GCSE exam in June. The birds were full of spring today. Almost every species I saw in the garden this morning was with a mate already. Currently our focus, however is on our Blue Tit pair which has been visiting our camera nestbox recently. They are still visiting every day, but I don't they have finished choosing a nest site yet- despite the fact that there is moss in our camera nestbox already.

Over the last few days, we have noticed that the Blue Tits have been showing much interest in our other nestbox, on the wall by our conservatory. 2 Blue Tits have been seen going in and out of the nestbox. The worst part is still to come, however. I opened the box this morning to see if there were any feathers, etc, only to find nesting material at the bottom of this box too! And it certainly looks like they have been doing it for the past week, because there is now about the same amount of nesting material that is in our camera nestbox.

This morning, I went outside into our office building, where I have a fantastic view of both nestboxes. I set up my camera on my tripod, and waited for the Blue Tits to arrive. It didn't take them too long to come, but I was very surprised with what I saw. The pair arrived, and were perched on a shrub near our fence. I saw one of the Blue Tits go into our conservatory nestbox, whilst the other one flew into our camera nestbox at the same time!

So, it appears we have a bit of a problem. I wondered why there were 2 nestboxes with moss at the bottom, and my first thought was: is the Blue Tit female building 2 nests. I have heard this happen before, but I must admit that it is a strange thing to do. They must use twice the amount of energy building 2 nests instead of just the one. This thought made me think... are there 2 pairs of Blue Tits visiting our garden at the moment- one pair for each nestbox. I would like to think this is the explanation but I haven't seen more than 2 Blue Tits in the garden at one time since January.

So, what is the situation inside the camera nestbox. Well, it appears that nesting material is still being taken into the box, but maybe less frequently than the other nestbox. There is moss mostly on the right hand side of the box, and quite a lot of it, by the look of it. Because our camera nestbox faces north, the light levels are often a bit dim, so its hard to tell exactly how much material is actually in the box.

Today, I looked out for the usual birds on the feeder but, surprisingly, this morning, for the first time, a pair of Siskins visited the garden. I noticed that they were much more timid than the usual Greenfinches. They are such colourful birds, and they brighten up the feeders. I hope they visit again in the near future. Also, a Robin was seen sat on the mealworms bowl, which is now nearly empty. I have some more mealworms ready to put out now. Hopefully the Blue Tits will notice them too.

I wonder if any of our other bird species decide to nest in our garden this year. We still have a Robin nestbox up in the tree at the end of our garden, but I don't think I have seen any visitors! oh, yes and good luck to everybody else with a nestbox hoping for it to be used this year!

All photos and videos taken in my garden on 7th March 09