Blue Tit Nest Box Diary 2014

Here we go again; for the third time in four years, our camera nestbox is being occupied. This time, its a blue tit pair who have taken residence. 

A few weeks ago, whilst I was at home for the weekend from uni on the 8th/9th March, I removed last years great tit nest from the box ready for the nesting season. Fast forward a couple of weeks to the 23rd when I came home again- this time for my university Easter break, and I turned on the nestbox camera to find a half completed nest with a decent layer of moss. In the time between then and now, our blue tit female has been incredibly busy adding more material to the nest to the point where the nest is now virtually completed. 

She is definitely the busiest female we have ever had build a nest in this box; the speed at which she has created it has been phenomenal. The last few days she has been lining the nest with fur and feathers. Every time I thought she was finished, she would bring in another piece of material. There's so much in the box now that she can barely manage it all!  She is currently visiting the box as much as 15-20 times an hour, sometimes with nesting material, sometimes without. 

Presuming she finally stops bringing in material over the next couple of days, this is the earliest a nest has been completed in our camera nest box. The blue tit female back in 2011 finished her nest on the 15th April, and the great tit last year had finished her nest and laid her first egg on the 27th April. Admittedly, last year's spring was very late, which explains why everything was set back a month or so, but nonetheless, this years blue tit female seems very ahead of the game. The winter was pretty mild, and March has really been very warm at times, so its perhaps unsurprising how early the nest has been completed. 

The first video below shows the female coming into the box a couple of times today- firstly at around 11:30, then later at about 13:30. I only got around to getting the camera connected up to my old laptop to record today, hence why there are no videos recorded from the last week or so.

The second video shows a couple of clips from later on in the day (after 16:00), and you can see the progress she has made just in one day.

And finally, here's an image showing what the nest looks like as of around 17:00 today:
 

So another nest box story begins. It can't go too much worse than the two previous attempts at nesting in this box, which is a positive I guess! No chicks fledged from the blue tit nest of 2011, and only one chick fledged from the great tit nest of 2013. I'm feeling that 2014 is the year that our luck finally changes. I've said it now haven't I? Let's just see what happens then. That sounds a bit bit better doesn't it. 

Thanks for reading.