It was box 1, however, that we thought was going to give me something to write about. Have a look at this!
Was
this a great tit having a look around? As it didn't enter the box we
couldn't see for sure but the top of its head looked distinctly black.
A
quick look at the image from the outside camera quickly showed us that this
was just another visit from a bluetit.
Still, it's very early days yet!
Now we have a couple of other cameras in the garden, we thought you might like to see what they are watching. One camera is taking pictures of the visitors to our bird table.
During
the winter, we get inundated with blackbirds. We sometimes have as
many as 10 in our small garden (roughly 50 feet square). We understand
they are winter visitors from the continent. Certainly they disappear
during the summer leaving us with one or two expanding families as the
nesting season progresses.
This is one of the mature males. The males seem to tolerate other blackbirds as they don't get too close. They are much keener to chase off the immature blackbirds of which there are several.
Their favourite food is the fat mix. This is melted lard into which sunflower hearts, chopped peanuts, oats and a little mixed seed have been added.
When they eat this mix, which they do with gusto, they grab a chunk and toss is up so they can catch it with their beak wide open so that the food can be swallowed. While this is going on, you can see a robin in the background waiting patiently for his turn!
Another
frequent visitor is a song thrush. This has started singing in the
early morning - a lovely harbinger of spring!