Elizabeth & Malcolm's
bluetit pages

Now it's 2012 - this diary's twelfth year!

This web site is a diary of the breeding behaviour of blue and great tits in our garden in Mayford, Surrey since February 2001.  So this nesting season will be the twelfth year of the diary.

The overview page gives the dates of the principal events, such as the start of nest building, egg laying, hatching and fledging.  You can compare these dates with what is happening this year  and see if climate change has had a noticeable effect in Mayford!  Each year has its own Summary page which gives more details of the year's activities.

Keep up to date with our latest postings by clicking on Latest Entry.  Alternatively, during the day you can watch what is happening now in our nest boxes by viewing the webcams.  We have now added some video clips to our site which you can access by clicking Videos in the left hand menu.

The image at the top of the page was taken in June 2002 and shows the parents with their brood shortly before they fledged.  The adult female is on the left and the male is on the right.  Eleven eggs were laid in two groups with a gap of 18 days between them.  Six chicks hatched and five flew the nest. This is a story of success when we had expected failure and a lesson to all those who think their nest has been deserted - don't give up hope too soon! (And DON'T INTERFERE - it's illegal anyway!)

Recent News Thursday 5th January 2012 A rather fine shot of our long tailed tits.

If you have any questions about blue and great tits, you may like to visit the Bigg Bird Forum at  http://forum.biggonline.co.uk   As well as joining in the discussions about general birding topics, you can also use it as an alternative to our Feedback mechanism.  Why not take a look?

This page was last updated on Monday, 30 January 2012 14:48  Visitors since February 2002: