Still have two this evening, both look strong and appear to be being fed equally. A glimmer of hope has arisen from the ashes of despair. Have noticed more green caterpillars being fed to these two so everything crossed for them (the birds not the caterpillars).
Beautiful photos, you should be very proud of them.
Good to hear that two are doing well oldsailor
Regards Alan
My photos are on Flickr and Website
good news old sailor. Keep us posted!
When I set up my camera nestbox in mid February and a bluetit started to roost within 2 weeks I was pretty excited but then when I got back from a holiday to find 9 eggs there too I was totally amazed. Unfortunately I have been thro' a steep 'natural world' learning curve. There are now just 3 chicks. Not just one by one but over one night 3 chicks just disappeared. I did some research and didn't really like what I found out.
Now I'm becoming more philosophical about it all. Mother Nature is a cruel mistress indeed.
A lot of us were influenced by Naturewatch on telly...how many used camera nestboxes will be up for sale on e-bay next year?
I'm so pleased to hear that you have 2 healthy youngsters. I guess I'm fortunate as I have 4 that are now looking as if they will be leaving the nest soon so judging by all the other comments...from 8 eggs to have 4 healthy youngters is more of a a plus than a negative. I had to go away overnight but couldn't wait to get back just to make sure they were still O.K. ..it is captivating viewing. My 'babies' are speading & fluttering their wings so it won't be long now. I haven't noticed many caterpillars or the like being fed to the brood but I have noticed that they are making good use of the seeders and fat balls so may be they are being lazy but as long as they are healthy it doesn't matter.
Hi Miki. I understand what your saying that camera boxes can and do cause distress when things go wrong, My GT,s had a bad time this year, well not too bad a time, 10 eggs, 10 chicks, 6 survived to fledge, last year 11 Blue tits hatched and fledged, but 2 previous years all clutches 100% failures. Odd's are bad but the success's are good, but that' s nature
Camera,s are good and bad, as Doggie says he doesn't have camera boxes as too upsetting.
What I'm saying is the watching when it goes right enjoy it.
Cheers Richard
hi richard, first time i have been on this site and really upset that all our 6 baby blue tits have all died. we noticed 2 days ago that the female blue tit had not been around all day and then today we realised the male blue tit had not been around at all today. we decided to have a look in the the nest box and sadly we found 6 dead chicks in there. How upset we were as last year we had 5 healthy chicks fledge. we dont know what happened but how sad. Hopefully next year will be more happier. Have u any idea what may have caused this or what may have happened, many thanks.
Hi Yosa. The concenus on this among others on the site is the sudden cold snap we've had which affected the food supply. I noticed that the parents were making fewer food deliveries.
Richard
Hi Yosa
Seems like I spoke too soon. Lost one chick yesterday and the adults appear to have given up on the solitary remaining chick today and abandoned it.
I would like to know from more experienced contributors what I should do now. Do I clean the nest out completley and wash the box, or do I leave it a while?
I have read that second clutches are rare but a friend of mine had two last year, with one following almost immediately after the first fledged.
I would like to thank everyone here for their input, I would have been feling pretty awful now if I thought I was the only on to have lost all 'their chicks'.
Hi oldsailor
If it was me i would clean the box out if there are dead chicks in there, i've cleaned mine out due to there being 5 dead in it.
Oldsailor - how very sad to hear that you have lost your 2 remaining chicks - just when you got your hopes up for them. My 4 chicks have flown the nest today. They picked a lovely day to fly off! One minute they were all in the nest box and then next there was just 1 remaining. I got to witness the last one leave the nest box and I waited to see if Mum & Dad would be there to tend to them. After a few minutes the adults came back & had a look in the nest box & when they saw that the chicks weren't there they started to call for them. They flew down to where they were so hopefully all will be well from now on especially now that they are in the BIG wide world. I won't be letting my dogs out in the garden today just incase they find them.
While I've been looking out for the fledged BT's I have also noticed that we must have a Robin's nest in a bush near by so I've now moved on to Robin patrol - would have loved to have had a camera in that nest area.
I will leave it a week or so & clean out the nest box in readiness for next year. By the way do you check your cam nest box over winter - we noticed that a Blue Tit sleeps in there at night & has done this for the last few years. Clever thing - keeping out tof the cold!
Hi Oldsailor,
So sorry to hear u lost your chicks, its a terrible feeling when they"ve not grown up to be the beautiful birds we know they are. I'm still feeling gutted!!! Hopefully next year will be successful. At the moment we are watching a baby starling been fed by its mother, its hilarious as the baby never stops crying for food and the poor mum cannot keep up!!Now we have a pair of Green Finches who are eating very slowly and taking no notice of the racket next to them. Its nice to see some success at a time when we lost our little ones. Hope next year you have a happy little blue tit family, kind regards yosa
One of my brothers had 6 blue tit chicks hatch but all of them died in the box, another brother has 8 blue tit eggs that have not hatched but the mother has sat on them for 31 days!! Very sad. Anyone know when she will finally give up and abandon the nest? On a brighter note I have great tit's nesting in my camera prepared bird box, so hopefully I can have a posititve result.
Make sure your food source is not too big for the babies, blue tits can sometimes get whole peanuts if the feeder is faulty, good luck. I am watching ten eggs at the moment.
artist
Life is beautiful