How do I know this? Well I remember last year that nesting material went in the box quite quickly and the chicks were being fed quite frequently. However, I am really not sure what happened but the feeding stopped quite abruptly well before the chicks would have been due to fledge. And now that I have seen the nest I sadly saw the remains of some young birds. So what actually happened?
They could have died for a number of reasons. Possibly the most obvious was that they could have starved. This is very common and could easily be the case here. The parent birds did bring in insects, but I am not sure there were enough caterpillars to feed the chicks on. A BTO garden bird book stated this about Blue Tits nesting in gardens: "The average number of eggs laid in gardens (8.8 eggs) is less than that in mixed woodland (9.7) and mature oak woods (10.9). This is because gardens do not support anywhere near the number of insects (especially caterpillars) needed". It then went on later to say: "The end result is that many young Blue Tits die in nestboxes, having starved to death". 
So I think that was probably the reason for the unsuccessful year. Having said this the parents might have abandoned the nest (although I don't know why they would have). While this is sad news, it is perfectly natural and is definitely not unusual as we found with Shirl's nestbox diaries for the past 2 years. I am still trying to order some live mealworms ready for the year ahead. Apparently, they can almost be as good for hungry chicks as caterpillars. I'm not sure that they are the best thing for any young birds our garden may have this year, but its the best I can do, and should help. 
Hopefully, the drama that unfolded last year in the terrace nestbox last year can be repeated this year in our camera nestbox (with some fledging birds this time) for us all to see. I haven't seen any action since my last posting, but hopefully I will be able to capture some more inspections. I am sure, that even if nothing nested there this year, I would at least be able to capture birds visiting the box in the coming weeks. As for the terrace nestbox, after I have cleaned it out, it will need to be put up again, but somewhere else. I really would love to see House Sparrows actually using the box. They like to nest in small groups, so the box should be the right place. I didn't even see them visit the terrace nestbox last year, but there is currently quite a few of them in the garden. They tend to like the seed mixes rather than the suflower hearts here, so I have filled our main feeder with it. Good luck to all nesting birds this year!
All photos taken in my garden on 17th January 2009
