| 26th
November |
An Axis 2100
camera, modified for infra-red operation, has been put on line showing Box 4.
The box was cleaned out in October and a blue tit has been roosting there most
nights. Box 4 Webcam |
| 25th
October |
I finally got
around to indexing some more of the archives:
|
| 11th
June |
- All 6 blue tits sucessfully fledged
from Box 5 over a period of 3 days.
- Sadly, all 5 great tit chicks died
in box 1. The last 2 looked strong on the 9th June but were dead by the 10th.
Last pictures from box 1: Internal, External
- We have a lot of pictures and video
which will be added to the site when we get time.
Summary of 2007 Season
Box
1 - 5 great tit eggs, all hatched, none survived
Box 2 - Taken over by a
hornet
Box 3 - 9/9 great tits fledged
Box 4 - 10 blue tit eggs, none
hatched
Box 5 - 5/5 blue tits fledged
Box 6 - (no camera) Unknown
number of great tits fledged
Box 7 - Mother blue tit (Scruffy) killed by
woodpecker. Chicks abandoned. |
| 25th
May |
- Box 1 All 5 eggs had
hatched by 24th May.
- Box 3 Fledging took 4
days with the last 2, of the 9 great tits, leaving on the 24th May.
- Box 5 The 6 blue tit
chicks have emerged from the nest cup and the first wing testing has been seen.
|
 |
|
| 21st
May |
By 1500 today,
2 chicks had fledged from box 3. We will try to update the pictures in a few
days but here is a video of a jay
attack. Save to your local drive before playing. To see what happened, it
needs to be played frame by frame. Although the jay got some feathers from
something, the birds left in the box seem ok. |
| 20th
May |
- Box 1 The female great
tit is still incubating her 5 eggs. No male around.
- Box 2 Taken over by
hornet/wasp?
- Box 3 It looks like
fledging is imminent. Videos:
Wing tests and
feeding from outside
External view of
feeding
Pictures from today:
Page 1,
Page
2
- Box 4 Eggs did not
hatch. Abandoned after 20 days incubation.
- Box 5 Male has stopped
feeding the camera and both parents now feed the chicks.
- Box 7 The front of the
box has been wrecked by a woodpecker - possibly Scruffy's attacker.
|
 |
|
| 13th
May |
Scruffy's mate,
the male in Box 7, fed the young a few times this morning but nothing since
12:30. We thought that we'd try the chicks with a few bits of chopped up
mealworm. However, the chicks are not very strong but a couple had some food.
Unfortunately, it does not look like there is much chance for them. The male
doesn't really know what to do.
More bad news - after 20 days
incubating, the female in Box 4 has finally given up and abandoned her 10 eggs.
Box 8 (no camera) has great tits, with young, and there are starlings
& blue tits in tree hollows. Boxes 1, 3 & 5 also seem to be doing OK at
the moment. |
| 12th
May |
|
| 9th
May |
The scruffy family's
chicks must have hatched in the last day or so.
Here are a few
pictures from today's archive.
The eggs in box 4 still haven't
hatched more than 17 days after the last egg was laid.
The short
sighted(?) male, in box 5, still tries to feed the camera. |
 |
|
| 6th/7th
May |
- Box 1 on 3rd May a
great tit started to build a nest and has been roosting since then.
- Box 2 A hornet(?)
decided to build a nest on one of the lights. The camera was obscured.
- Box 3 It looks like all
9 eggs had hatched by yesterday.
Click here for pictures
& videos.
- Box 4 Still
incubating
- Box 5 Looks like
incubation started about a week ago. Why this lens gets so dirty -
click
here
- Box 7 Scruffy has been
incubating her eggs for about a week.
|
 |
|
| 22nd
April |
- Boxes 1 & 2 Minimal
activity
- Box 3 9 Eggs laid by
today, now incubating.
- Box 4 10 eggs laid by
20/4/07, now incubating
- Box 5 Nest almost fills
box. Nesting material no longer obscures camera, so feed has been
re-started.
- Box 7 Scruffy may have
laid some eggs but they are not visible.
|
  |
|
| 14th
April |
- Box 1 Not much happened until
12th/13th when a great tit visited and did a few nesting wiggles.
- Box 2 A pair of great tits
has visited, one has started to build a nest and roosts there most nights.
- Box 3 The great tits have
started a nest here as well. We are not sure if the same birds are visiting
boxes 1, 2 & 3.
- Box 4 The first egg was laid
on 12th April. The light level has been reduced to ~150 lux except when
capturing video.
- Box 5 The pair of blue tits
have almost filled the box with nesting material. There is hardly enough room
for them to stand and they have buried the camera aperture. We are a bit
concerned that the nest is up to the hole level and may make the family
vulnerable to predators.
- Box 7 Scruffy, One Foot and
another bird have been seen here. Scruffy is now the rooster and has started to
build a nest. Since Scruffy has been doing some nesting wiggles, it is presumed
to be a female. The light level has been reduced to ~150 lux, except when
capturing video.
| For pictures, from all
boxes, taken during the first 2 weeks in April,
click here.
|
 |
|
| 31st
March |
- Box 1 Not much activity. Just
a few visits from both blue & great tits.
January-March archive
added.
- Box 2 At least 3 great tits
have been visiting. There was a big fight on 28th
(video here). Since then,
some nesting material has been brought in. Plenty of nesting wriggles seen. Set
to IR only.
- Box 3 Visits from 2 birds
during the day with some nesting wriggles. Male seen to feed female. No
roosting since 26th.
- Box 4 Female roosting every
night. Nest taking shape. Both male and female visiting during the day.
- Box 5 Glass replaced by solid
barrier. Still set to IR only since birds started to take nesting material over
the top of the barrier in to the camera compartment. Camera too low - buried in
nest! Lots of activity from both partners.
- Box 7 One Foot still roosting
every night. Scruffy visits during the day. One Foot's nesting material was
taken out by Scruffy on the 27th. What now?
- Click here for
pictures from the last 2 weeks
|
| 11th
March |
- Box 5 has been replaced with
a side-view camera box. The male took exception to its reflection so the camera
has been fixed in IR mode for a while. More pictures from Box 5.
- Scruffy has shown up
again, this time in Box 1.
- Nest building has continued in
Box
7
- Still lots of activity in
Boxes 3 & 4 but not much in Box 2 until a pair of great tits inspected
today.
- Box 2 has been fixed in IR
mode in case the lights were making the box less desirable.
|
 |
|
| 3rd
March |
|
| 26th
February |
- Box 1 - Jane, the rooster and
mother from last year, has not been seen for a few weeks. A different blue tit
has roosted a few times and visited occasionally, during the day.
- Box 2 - Since the great tits
chased the roosting blue tit away there have only been occasional visits by a
blue tit.
- Box 3 - There has been a lot
of activity here. The great tit roosts most nights. There have been visits by a
pair of blue tits. Over the last couple of weeks, the pair of great tits has
visited once or twice a day. A picture archive, for January & February, has
been added - click
here.
- Box 4 - An Axis 2100 camera
has been fitted to this box. For some reason, the colour balance is different
from Box 1. There is a resident blue tit that roosts most nights and visits,
with its mate, during the day.
- Box 7 - Two blue tits, in
addition to the rooster, have been seen in here. This box has had the most
activity of the blue tit boxes.
|
| 10th
February |
One of last year's
residents frombox
7 has got used to the new box and has roosted a couple of
times.
The
camera noise does attract its attention but it no longer seems to bothered by
the reflections from the glass wall.
The long term occupant of box 1
has not been seen since the snow fell a couple of days ago. |
 |
| A pair of great tits
has been trying to evict our roosting blue tit in box 2. We did not see the
blue tit from 6-8th February but it returned to roost on the 9th. The picture
was the last captured before it left on the 5th Feb. |
 |
| This is the pair of
great tits. One or both have been returning a couple of times a
day. |
 |
|
| 1st
February |
| One of last year's
parents, from box 7, has been visiting the new
box 7. The
bird's left foot is deformed or injured. Compare with picture 3
here |
|
| Who's that? (Looking
at its reflection in the glass) |
 |
|
| 30th January
|
There has been
a lot happening in the boxes but we have not had much time to update this
diary.
The sparrow terrace has been moved and its location filled with
a new box, Box
7, fitted with a side view camera. |
| 25th
January |
| A nice picture of the
box 2 resident defending against a pair of great tits. |
 |
|
| 6th
January |
Blue tits have been
visiting the great tit's box (3) most days. The great tit has only roosted half
the time in the last week.
|
 |
| Box 2's roosting blue
tit spends some time each morning cleaning up. Compare this box to the mess in
box 1 (see picture below). |
 |
| Rooster posing in Box
1 |
 |
|
|
3rd January
2007 |
|
|
29th December
2006 |
| The 28th December was
sunny which meant more activity in the boxes. This looks like a male visiting
the roosting female in Box 1. |
 |
| We are not sure if
this was a friendly encounter or a take over bid in Box 3. |
 |
|
| Last Year |
2006 Diary |
