Showing posts with label Great Tit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great Tit. Show all posts

Sunday, 20 November 2022

A Second Inspection

Earlier in the week there appeared to be a very brief visit to the nest box by a Dunnock. Too brief to be absolutely sure on the identification. Yesterday's visitor was much easier to identify:



Another visit from a Great Tit.

Thursday, 3 November 2022

A Brief Inspection

Checking to see whether there had been any activity in the camera nestbox I was pleased to see this Great Tit had given it a brief inspection a few days ago.

IMG_0745

It is the time of year when some birds do the rounds of possible nesting sites. It certainly made a change as over the past year the only activity recorded has been the occasional wasp, fly, butterfly and spider.

Tuesday, 27 September 2022

A few Feathered Visitors

I was fortunate to spot a couple of Long Tailed Tits visit the bird feeders. It is quite a while since I last saw any visit my feeders. Unfortunately they didn't stay long as there were scared away by the noisy arrival of a Wood Pigeon. When I checked the automatic camera recordings I saw that Great and Blue Tits are also visiting. Not recorded by the camera was a brief visit by a Coal Tit.



You may have noticed some late Sunflower plants growing near the feeders. In the late Spring I tried twice to get some seeds started in pots for planting in the front garden. They all failed to germinate! These plants are the result of randomly scattered seeds dropped when the birds drop them whilst feeding.

Thursday, 10 February 2022

More Nest Box Inspections

Today was the fourth time Great Tits checked out the Nest Box. What surprised me was the Blue Tit which also visited a short while later. If the video appears to be greyed out it will still play. Seems to be a glitch with YouTube or Blogger.



I wonder how many other sites they are checking out before making a choice.

Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Nest Box Visitors

First - A short while ago I saw two Robins on the lawn. The male will usually attack and drive off any other male Robin intruders in his territory. Those two kept about six feet apart with no signs of aggression. A single Robin has been the first and last visitor to the bird table every day. About a week ago the camera caught two on there at the same time. Slight aggression but both fed at the same time. I hope this is a bonded pair who will nest nearby in the near future.



Now on to the nest box. On Sunday morning a pair of Great Tits came to investigate it. The box was also visited the following day.



Sunday was very overcast so the camera stayed in black and white. Monday was much brighter so a colour clip was captured.

Saturday, 4 April 2020

Bird Feeder Visitors

House Sparrow, Greenfinch and Goldfinch incoming

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Greenfinch and Goldfinches

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Great Tit

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A bit of video



The first time I have had Greenfinch and Goldfinches visit for quite a while.
While I am pleased to see the Greenfinch they make me a bit apprehensive as they have often brought finch disease (Trichomonosis) which is fatal to all the visiting finches.

Saturday, 13 April 2019

All Systems Are Go

After weeks of no bird activity in the nestbox, today there were about 100 visits.
Mrs Great Tit worked all morning and most of the afternoon with an hour lunch break.



Let's hope they are successful this year.
Last year the nest was nearly finished when a bumble bee took possession.

Soundtrack is
Disco Lounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

A Couple of Solo Visits

It has been a couple of weeks since anything last visited the camera nestbox.
Today there were two visits by a solo Great Tit:

This morning:
2019-02-13-18h16m54s878

This afternoon:
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(Snapshots from the automatically recorded video)

Wednesday, 30 January 2019

Fleeting Visit

Yesterday one Great Tit made a fleeting visit to the nestbox.
A snapshot from the 30 second video:

tvpsnap-2019-01-30-20h18m45s098

The way it was looking at the entrance I think it was hoping its partner would join it.

I'm waiting patiently for the female to perform a 'nestbox shuffle'  It always looks as though she is testing the overall size of the box and making sure the walls are strong enough. It appears to be a final test to see whether the nestbox is suitable for her.

This is one I captured about four years ago:


Saturday, 26 January 2019

Great Tits Inspect Nestbox

I haven't seen the Blue Tit visit the nestbox since mid December.
Yesterday a pair of Great Tits gave it the once over.


Saturday, 3 November 2018

Ready For a New Resident

As at least one Great Tit is visiting the garden it was time to give the camera nestbox a bit of a clean. Last Spring a Great Tit had spent ages building a nest only for it to be taken over by a bumblebee.

Once I had removed the front sections from the box the full depth of the nest could be seen:

Great Tit Nest

I managed to take it out in one piece.
Notice how the materials used start coarse and gets finer as it nears completion:

Great Tit Nest

I had hoped to see some remnants of the bumblebee nest but when I parted the construction all that could be noticed was a greasy, waxy coating to the materials. That surprised me as there had been plenty of bee activity with frequent comings and goings for several weeks.

Anyway, the nestbox is empty and clean once again ready for a new occupant.

Friday, 20 April 2018

Who Will Win Possession?

It's not all over yet as to which will finally nest in the camera nestbox.
The bumblebee continues adjusting the nesting material.
At one stage yesterday there were two of them in there.

Every now and then Mrs GT brings more material.
Early this morning Mr GT arrived with what looks like a bee fly he had caught, presumably as food for Mrs. She arrives and after a short while leaves:



Who will actually raise a brood?
Will the Great Tits remove the bee or will they be scared off?
Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of 'The Drama of the Nest Box'

Sunday, 15 April 2018

Great Tit Roosting

Mrs GT made many visits yesterday and today bringing soft material to line her nest.
Tonight is the first time she has decided to sleep there.
All being well the first egg should be appearing in the not too distant future.



For anyone not able to leave a comment - I spent some time searching to find a possible cause.
All I came up with is it is something which others have found happening from time to time.
It has been going on for some years and only affects a few blogs at any one time.
There doesn't seem to be a solution apart from waiting for things to get back to normal in their own good time.

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Another Busy Day

As the 10 bare root Vibrant strawberry plants I had ordered arrived this morning I had to set about planting them in a couple of troughs for them to grow on in the greenhouse. Working with wet potting compost outdoors was far from pleasant in the cold, misty, damp atmosphere created by the sea fret which covered the area for most of the day:

 DSCN8332

Added to the plug plants potted and growing on in the conservatory are these Upright Bush Fuchsia 'Hermiana' plants. These are for the top of my hanging baskets:

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Yesterday everywhere was soaking wet after yet another night of persistent rain so the Great Tit took a break from nest building. Today she made up for lost time by making about 18 visits:



It looks as though this sea fret will be with us at least for tomorrow morning but all being well we can both look forward to warmer weather from this coming weekend.

For those unfamiliar with sea frets you can read a description on the Met office site HERE.

Sunday, 8 April 2018

Time For A Soft Lining

The Great Tit has been working very hard to get her nest built.
Now she is bringing in moss to line it:


Wednesday, 4 April 2018

Busy, Busy

The Great Tit has been making up for lost time. She spend a short while yesterday and nearly two hours this morning fetching material to build her nest in the camera nest box. This is the second hour this morning. Though speeded up 4x it is still over 7 minutes long:


Thursday, 29 March 2018

Home Sweet Home

Great Tit nest building starts in earnest. Just a couple of short clips:


Wednesday, 28 March 2018

Has She Finally Made Up Her Mind?

After seven days of visits to the camera nestbox Mrs Great Tit arrived with a piece of nesting material. It also looks as though she caught the spider which kept building a web in front of the camera:


Friday, 23 March 2018

Fluttering About

What a glorious early Spring day it was on Thursday.
By late morning the temperature had reached a heady12.5C
I decided to check the heathers to see what was about.
There along with dozens of bees were three Small Tortoiseshell butterflies:

Small Tortoiseshell DSCN8268

Making a change from yellow were some small clumps of Chionodoxa forbesi (Glory of the Snow):

DSCN8272


Yet another brief visit to the camera nestbox by both Great Tits this morning:


Thursday, 23 February 2017

Visitors to the new Bird Table

Bird Table

It didn't take long for the locals to start using the new bird table.
First brave soul was a Robin:
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Others included.....
Dunnock:
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female Blackbird:
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Starling:
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Great Tit:
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and Chaffinch
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I also noticed a Blue Tit but it was too fast for me. There were plenty of House Sparrows but they seemed to prefer the hanging feeder under the bird table.

Title was created with the Mac app Art Text 3 and the FeatheredFlight font.
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