All seven chicks hatched

So its been about two days since the first chick hatched in the blue tit nest in the camera nest box at the end of our garden. Chick number 6 hatched yesterday, as it was getting dark, and chick number 7 hatched this evening. Both parents are feeding the chicks very frequently and the chicks are already starting to grow.

I was a little bit worried about the seventh chick, as it hatched about two days after the first. But I was happy to see that the very first feed after the seventh chick hatched went straight to the new chick. Both parents are feeding roughly the same amount each.

The video below shows the scene just after the sixth chick hatched yesterday- all six chicks looking healthy in the box. The seventh egg was hidden under the pile of chicks, so it couldn't be seen :-)

The clip below shows both parents feeding the six chicks (the female comes in first, then the male comes in after). The female then stays in the box and tidies up the nest before settling down on the chicks.

The clip below shows the male bringing in a meal for the chicks. As you can see, the chicks were already strong enough to lift their necks up quickly to accept the food from the parents.

The video below shows both parents feeding the chicks again (male comes in first, then the female). The female settles down on the chicks after she has fed them. She still spends a fair amount of time sitting on the nest, with one egg unhatched at this stage.

Later on in the day, I was starting to wonder if the seventh egg would hatch, or whether it would remain unhatched, as is quite often the case with one egg in a nest. So I was quite surprised when I looked over to my laptop screen to see Mrs blue tit eating an egg shell- the seventh chick had just hatched, almost exactly two days after the first egg hatched. I didn't capture the exact moment, but the clip below shows the situation just after the chick had hatched...

Shortly after the last chick had hatched, chick number 7 got fed, which made me smile- I was quite worried that the seventh chick was noticeably smaller than the others, given that it hatched later. I didn't manage to record that feed, but the clip below shows the parents coming in a few times, feeding the seven chicks. In this clip, it was difficult to see which chick was actually being fed, as the parents were in the way, but as I am watching the TV now, I can see that the smallest chick is definitely getting its share of the food.

So things are looking good at this stage, I just hope it continues. I sometimes do forget how lucky we are to be watching a family of blue tits bring up their young. We've probably all seen blue tit families nesting on programs like Springwatch, but it really is something different when they are in your own garden. Hopefully this nesting story will be a success in the end :-)

Five chicks!

The first time I checked our camera nest box yesterday evening was about 21:00, and our female blue tit was sat in the nest cup settling down for the night. After about 10 minutes of watching, she shuffled around and revealed a tiny chick underneath her! So at least one of the eggs had hatched yesterday while I wasn't watching. Whether there was only one at this stage, I didn't know. As she was preparing to roost for the night, she didn't move off the nest cup, so it was difficult to see exactly what was going on underneath her, especially given that I was watching under the Infra Red light, rather than normal daylight.

By this morning, three chicks could be seen. I recorded the first few feeds to the three tiny chicks. The male is feeding the chicks very frequently, and most of the feeds seem to be caterpillars- which is good news. I know its only day two but Its promising to see that there doesn't seem to be a shortage of insect food to feed the chicks.

The video below shows one of the first feeds from the blue tit male, at around 06:30. My alarm went off at about 06:00 for school, and the male was feeding between then, and when this clip was recorded...

Most of the food that Mr blue tit brought in was passed to Mrs blue tit, who was sitting in the nest cup for much of the day. She then passed on the food to the chicks beneath her. At times, Mr blue tit seemed as if he wanted to feed the chicks directly, without feeding it to the female first.

The clip below just shows the male blue tit coming in to feed the chicks, at about 06:45. He was beginning to get used to feeding the chicks when the female was out finding food for herself. He also removes the faecal sack from one of the chicks as he leaves.

The fourth chick hatched just as I was leaving to go to school, so I didn't have time to record it. However, when I got home, it was clear that five chicks had hatched, leaving two unhatched. The female is mostly still sat on the nest cup, keeping the chicks warm and incubating the remaining two eggs. Now and then, she will pop out to find some food for herself and the chicks. Throughout the day, she has eaten away at the bits of empty egg shell which should provide her with the Calcium she used up in the egg-laying process.

The clip below shows Mr blue tit coming in to feed one of the five chicks that have now hatched.

Our female blue tit is currently roosting for the night on her five chicks- the other two should hatch later tonight or tomorrow. This is getting really exciting now... I will keep you posted on what happens next. Fingers crossed, our blue tit family will do well :-)

Starlings splashing about

-- NOTE - This post was done in March 2012, but I have posted it so it appears as having been published on the 3rd May 2011 --

Around the time where we had a pair of blue tits nesting in our camera nest box, the garden was also very busy elsewhere. The selection of photos below shows a starling paying a visit to our garden in early May. I actually used a few of the photos for in of my A-level photography projects last year.

Anyway, here they are. For some of these pictures, I have fiddled with them slightly in Photoshop Elements, just to enhance them a little...

The starling disappeared for a while and this magpie took the opportunity to take a dip...

But the starling was back about 10 minutes later, but wanted a bath this time

... And take off!

That's all for now, have a great day :)

Male blackbird about

-- NOTE - This post was done in March 2012, but I have posted it so that appears as having been published on the 2nd May 2011 --

With all the stuff going on in the camera nest box at this point of the year, I never got around to posting many of the pictures of stuff going on around our garden at the time . The photos below show a blackbird having a look around our lawn looking for insects- presumably looking after a nest of chicks at the time.

These are actually probably some of the best blackbird photos I have taken and they all came out rather well. As long as they come close enough, they aren't one of the more difficult birds to photograph, but getting a nice selection of photos is still nice. Keep checking back to the 2011 catch up post for more stuff that never got posted from last year.

Exmoor holiday

I thought that, now Mrs blue tit is sat on her seven eggs, I would post about our family holiday to Exmoor, North Devon. I have some bad news about the robin nest in our garden, but I'll save it for another time. So where exactly were we located? The dot on the map below shows the location of our cottages in relation to the rest of Exmoor national park, and the map in the bottom left corner of the image shows where Exmoor is in relation to the rest of the country, for those of you from other countries.

Before I go any further, I'd like to just mention that my Auntie Rose who was on holiday with us in Exmoor has just started a wildlife blog about their garden in north-west England. She's really, really enthusiastic about gardening (particularly growing veg on their family allotment) and wildlife in general. Its great that she's entered the blogging world, and I'm sure you'll enjoy her garden (and further afield) experiences into the future just as much as I will.

Exmoor is a fantastic place to see wildlife. One thing I noticed while we were there was the huge variety of habitats. Just some of these include: coniferous and broadleaf woodland, moorland, marshland, rivers and streams, farmland, thick hedgerows and coastal habitats. So we were able to see a wide range of birds throughout the week. In fact, a total of 43 species were seen, despite the fact we didn't visit a single nature reserve in the whole week. Each of those birds were seen out and about on various walks within about a 10 mile radius of the cottage.

Even the area within a mile of where the cottage was located was filled with plenty of birds to see. The common spring warblers could be heard singing along the hedgerows of the fields in healthy numbers. It was often quite difficult to spot them though, particularly chiffchaffs. The willow warblers seemed to be more common and were slightly easier to spot. The photos below show an individual that made its way to the outer areas of the hedgerows:

In the farmland surrounding the cottage, I heard the classic British sound of skylarks singing. It really is so hard to pick them out in the sky, so I was unable to get any photos. I saw one for about a minute before I lost it again. Amazingly, one landed on a fence post just a few metres from where I was standing but it flew high into the sky before I could get my camera out.

In the fields, wheatears could be seen, although they were camouflaged quite well and were also difficult to see. A couple of record shots can be seen below. It is only the second time I have seen a wheatear, so I did find it difficult to identify them at first.

We also visited the towns of Lynton and Lynmouth, and walked up the huge river valleys to the top where we had an excellent view of the surrounding environment. A photo of the river at the bottom of the valley can be seen below:

We made our way up the winding path to the top of the valley- which was very hard work! Along the way, we saw this peacock butterfly on the path...

As we walked up I became aware of a bird song which I hadn't come across before... a pied flycatcher. I hadn't seen one before so I was pretty happy to see one. I also know that their populations are in decline, so it was great to be able to see one before their populations get potentially dangerously low. Annoyingly, as I tried to take a photo, the camera automatically focussed on the tree trunk in the foreground rather than the branch with the flycatcher on. By the time I had switched to manual focus, it had flown off. See if you can spot the flycatcher in the photo below...

And when we got to the top of the valley, we were lucky enough to see these stunning views. Looking down on the valley and buildings, it looked almost like somewhere in Switzerland or somewhere similar. It really was an impressive view. We took the time to sit in the sun here and ate our lunch before moving on.

Whilst we were up there, we were lucky enough to see a family of peregrine falcons squabbling and circling above just before we ate our lunch. It was great to see such an impressive bird so close up. I have seen peregrines before, but never four of them at once, so close to us. The sheer speed of the falcons was incredible.

Another day, we wandered along a stretch of the East Lyn River which was owned by the National Trust- the actual site was called Watersmeet. The river here had pretty much the same habitat as the river photographed above. I spotted a pair of dippers as they collected water insects to take to a nest in a crack in the rock at the edge of the river. One of them came close enough to have its picture taken, clearly with various grubs in its bill. I always think of dippers as being water robins- they just seem similar in so many ways... apart from their habitats. Anyway, the photos I managed to get can be seen below:

We also visited the coast several times throughout the week. The photo below shows a linnet which we saw in some gorse as we walked along a coastal path:

I could post so much more about our sightings that week but I think I'll leave it for now- this posting is long enough as it is. I may add a list of the species I saw throughout the week another time. Anyway, enough rambling, I hope you all have a great bank holiday tomorrow, and I'll be back with more news from our blue tit nest. Bye for now though :-)

P.S. I have just added a post for the 25th April with a video of our male blue tit feeding the female on the nest- I didn't get around to uploading it on the day :-)