Bluetit Diary 2002 - March

Monday 4th March

Today we had been going to report little or no activity since the last entry, when a bluetit was seen in the tree near Box 1.  It did not go in, but having been monitoring Box 2, where we wondered if there had been a rearrangement of the two small pieces of moss, we switched to box 1 and found the first piece of nesting material there.  We were beginning to worry that our success last year was not to be repeated, but now we have some hope again.  Elizabeth is going to buy a small bag of hay when she goes out – we have seen a song thrush collecting nesting material and taking it into the hedge, so we plan to give her a bit of help.  We are going to provide a mud patch too – a leaflet from the BTO recommends this for blackbirds, and we have read that song thrushes line their nests with mud.

 About noon today, we heard a noise from the TV, and on investigation Elizabeth found a bluetit in the box.  It looked rather nervous, stretching up to look at the camera, before going in to a frenzy of pecking at one of the drainage holes in the floor.  Could this be the bird that behaved this way on February 24th?  Last night was much warmer than it has been for nearly a week – we hope this will trigger off her nesting efforts.

Saturday 9th March

Things are looking more hopeful in box 1 today.

This morning, at about 9am, Elizabeth was looking out of the bedroom window, and saw a bluetit fly to box 1, and go straight in with no hesitation at all.  The camera was not turned on at the time, and shortly after she turned it on, hoping the bird would not be upset if she did, but it had left.  However there were two or three bits of moss, as well as the piece of hay that has been there for a few days.  Later a bird entered again. This time it stayed inside for a couple of minutes and did several nesting wriggles before leaving.  The picture shows the bird just about to start with legs splayed and breast close to the floor.  This all happened while Malcolm was in the garden, working on our new rockery which was built when we had the pond enlarged recently.

During the day there were many visits, usually fairly brief.  On one occasion there was one bird in the box, staying quite still, when a second bird came in.  The first one departed and the second one went into its pecking routine again.  The piece of hay was removed at some point during the day.  In all we saw a bird there 12 times.

Sunday 10th March

No visits were seen this day, though we were not monitoring the box very much.  The weather was cold, with a strong blustery wind, and intermittent rain.

Monday 11th March

A much more promising day for nesting ideas.  It was wet first thing, but by 10am it had brightened up a lot, though still quite breezy.  Again we had a double visit.  The first bird was very scruffy looking, and shot out of Box 1 as soon as the second one went in.

Last year, when she was ordering some bird feeders, Elizabeth bought this little terracotta container to hold nesting materials, which came with a small supply of “bedding” in the form of semi cleaned sheep's wool.  She is wondering if it is time to put it out now.  She will have to use a strong wire to hang it from the pergola – the squirrels are bound to take an interest, and would probably soon chew through the green hanging cord shown in the photograph.  At the end of the day we had noticed 15 visits to Box 1, so there could have been many more as we have not been monitoring it very much.  The photograph above shows that there is still little interest in starting the nest building activity.

Tuesday 12th March

A dull day, and by 11am the only activity noted was a bird going onto the box at about 9am, but after that no  more interest in the box was seen.

Wednesday 13th March

Another cold, breezy day.  Again two birds were seen (briefly) together in box 1, and although there is more hay in the box, no serious nest building has started yet.  Box 2 is even less promising at the moment as can be seen from this picture.

Thursday 14th March

There is no more progress to be reported today, which is not surprising as there has been a very cold wind blowing, with periods of steady rain.  The photographs show some promise for Box 1, and a slight hint of interest in box 2.  The weather forecast suggests milder weather tomorrow, so we are trying to be optimistic!

Friday 15th March

The milder weather failed to materialise – we had been promised temperatures in double figures, but by the afternoon it had only reached 8.7ºC.  The morning was very wet and gloomy, but the afternoon was dry.  A bird was seen in Box 2, messing about with a few bits of moss, picking up a piece, going up to the entrance with it, then bringing it back again.  The bird also did some big nesting wriggles – stretching her wings right out, and fluttering across the floor of the box.

Saturday 16th March

When Elizabeth switched on the cameras, she thought there had been some activity in Box 2 – there were a few new bits of moss there.  Just a short while later a bird was seen inside, doing her violent nesting wriggle.

Sunday 17th March

A dry day, until late afternoon, with bright intervals, but we did not see as much activity as we expected.  It started to rain in the early evening, and by midnight, there had been 10mm of rain in the previous 24 hours.  Elizabeth has an electronic rain gauge, which enables us to keep an accurate record.

Monday 18th March

It has been a disastrously wet morning.   At 11am, when it had dried up and become quite bright,  the rain gauge was registering 7mm since midnight.  The pond is overflowing, the bog garden is awash, and most of the lawn resembles a bog garden at the moment.  It was raining again about 15 minutes later, and the rest of the day was a mixture of sunshine and showers.  By the end of there day there had been a total of 10mm of rain.

Tuesday 19th March

We were pleased to see when we turned on the cameras, that there was more moss in Box 2, and we soon saw the bird bringing in some nesting material.  The bird in Box 1 also made several visits before 9am, but so far we have not seen it bringing in any moss, though some had appeared by mid-morning.  In the afternoon I saw the Box 2 bird bringing in a beakful of straw on two occasions, and doing several nesting wriggles.

Wednesday 20th March

Box 2 is now looking quite promising - see the left hand picture - the bird has clearly had a very busy morning!  Later we managed to catch her in mid wriggle without the picture coming out as a confused blur!

Thursday 21st March

We have decided that we should refer to the birds in Box 1 and Box 2 as bird1 and bird2 respectively!  Bird2 has been very busy today, running a shuttle service of moss deliveries, with frequent nesting wriggles. She seems to be pressing the moss towards the walls of the box.  On one occasion the whole floor was covered with moss, but later it had been pushed away, leaving a bare patch in the middle of the floor.  The picture shows the results of her efforts.  The moss at the edges is almost 4cm deep whereas the centre is still quite bare.

At about 6pm, she came into the box and began a thorough preening session.  Was she settling down for the night?  She looked as if she might be getting sleepy, then we heard a call from outside, which made her alert again.  She seemed quite agitated, and perched on the hole, looking out for a little while, before she returned to her preening.

She eventually tucked her head under her wing, and settled down to sleep in the corner.

Friday 22nd March

For the first part of the morning we monitored box 1 – and we are very confused!  A bird is gathering moss from the lawn, quite near the box, and taking it in.  She is also making nesting movements including nesting wriggles, so we are confident she is a female.  However, a bird is also removing moss, and attacking one of the drainage holes violently.  So far, we have not been able to tell if this is one bird, or whether two are arguing about ownership of the box or even if the second bird is a maladjusted male!  Obviously we need to keep a careful watch for some time, to try to work this out.  The bird removing the moss seems very agitated.

Later on, we turned to Box 2 briefly.  This bird is still bringing in moss regularly.  Unfortunately we cannot see where she gathers it, as she flies away over the ten foot high hedge at the front of our garden, and is lost to view.  Malcolm watched Box 1 for some while, and is sure that there are two birds involved in this gathering and removing of moss.

Box 1 has still only a small amount of moss on the floor, the picture which was taken some time during the afternoon, shows what little progress has been made.

By 6.30pm bird 2 is sound asleep in her box.

Monday 25th March

The situation regarding box 1 is becoming clearer in that there are definitely two birds involved.  One is working hard, gathering moss from the lawn quite near to the box, and regularly taking it back to the nest.  There she does the usual female things with it including performing frequent nesting wriggles.  However, another bird keeps coming in, removing some of the nesting material, and flying away with it!  We have not been able to see what it does with the moss, whether it flies away with it or just drops it before flying off across our garden to a neighbouring garden.  Our best observation point is from our bedroom – it looks as though a prolonged viewing session will have to be undertaken.  We feel sorry for the first bird as she is working so hard, but by the end of the day the amount of moss in the nest has hardly changed!  Compare this picture with the one taken on Friday.  Not much has been achieved as the result of three days hard nest building!

We have two theories.  The rogue bird could either be the first bird's partner - with a distorted sense of what is the right way to make a nest, or a second female who is taking the moss from a neighbour's nest box.  Except when they meet inside the box, the birds appear to be a pair.  They perch reasonably close to each other and are both frequently around the box site, so Malcolm's theory is that it is a misguided male partner who probably thinks he is helping.  However, if the second bird is in the nest when the female appears, it leaves instantly. 

Bird 2 has been roosting in the box each night since we reported it last Thursday, but so far, at 18.10 today she is not there. However, by 18.30, there are roosting birds in both boxes.  Perhaps bird1 feels the only way she can make sure that more of her nesting material is not removed is to be there first thing in the morning!

So, at the end of another long day for our birds, they are both, for the first time, roosting in their respective nest boxes.

Wednesday 27th March

The end of another day, and two sleepy birds.  The picture on the right shows bird 1, who is having a hard time, as a second bird keeps removing some of her nesting material.  We have still not decided if this is her misguided partner, or another female who likes someone else to do the hard work for her!

 This picture shows bird 2, who is having a much easier time.  The nest cup is now being formed, though we have not seen her using any of the feathers put out for her from the cushion we sacrificed last year.  (See 21st April 2001 for details).

Thursday 28th March

Bird 2 was roosting as usual this evening, but we are rather concerned that box 1 is empty at 7pm.  On the few occasions we have been around to monitor box 1 we have seen little activity – we can only wait and hope nothing has gone wrong.  (Later: box 1 was empty all night.)

Friday 29th March

By 9.15am Box 1 has had two visits from a bird bringing in moss, and two visits from the “take moss out” bird.

Sunday 31st March

There is little activity to report – bird 2 continues to roost in her box, but bird 1 has given that up for the moment.

We therefore thought some other wildlife activity might be of interest.  We had a strange nocturnal visitation a few nights ago, which surprised us considerably.

We have been feeding a fox regularly in the evenings for some time now.  Some months ago we installed an infrared camera, because we wanted to see if it really was a hedgehog taking the food put out for its benefit.  (On one occasion it was a neighbour’s cat, but the hedgehog was seen too).  When it became colder, we still put out the food, as we were not sure when hedgehogs would hibernate, and thus began our fox watch.

About a week ago, we realised that a hedgehog had returned to our garden, but on the video recorder we had seen fox visits too.  On the night in question, there was a small portion of Beef Provençale left over from our evening meal, so Elizabeth put that out in one bowl, with the usual mixture of tinned and dried dog food in another.

Watching on the TV, we saw a hedgehog starting its supper – after a while a fox came along to see what was on the menu.  It circled round the hedgehog, which seemed to “freeze”, but made no effort to escape.  The fox seemed rather disconcerted, but settled for our leftovers.  It then tried to get its nose into the hedgehog’s bowl, but having failed, returned to lick the other bowl clean, before wandering off.  It returned a few minutes later, and had another more determined go at the hedgehog’s bowl – we think it might have received a scratch on its nose, because it suddenly started back before going off again.  Eventually it decided that this was a waste of time, and jumping over the low fence at the bottom of the garden, went away.  The hedgehog continued to munch away steadily, before wandering off.

The main thing that surprised us was that during the whole encounter, it was the fox that was nervous, not the hedgehog, and in the end it was the fox that backed down about the food.

The picture is of poor quality – but at least it shows we were not dreaming!

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