| Date | Comment |
|---|---|
| 28/02/2015 | Nest building began |
| 16/04/2015 | First egg laid |
| 23/04/2015 | Eighth egg laid |
| 07/05/2015 | First chick hatched |
| 27/05/2015 | Three birds fledged |
| 29/05/2015 | Three unhatched eggs found in the box |
2015 was a succesful year for the blue tits, when three youngsters fledged from Birdbox2 at the end of May. The table shows a few highlights from the nest box that year, from nest building in February, to fledging at the end of May:
The Bluetits began bringing the first pieces of nesting material into the birdbox on 28th February, 2015.
This short time-lapse video shows their progress during March.
In April, Bumble Bees decided to take advantage of the nesting material that the bluetits had brought in.
The bees appeared to be tree bumble bees (Bombus hypnorum), a fairly recent visitor to the UK.
This video to the right shows how concerned the Bluetit was at this invasion.
The Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society (BWARS)
have some interesting information about the Tree Bee including maps of how it has spread across the UK since it was first seen in 2001.
The first egg of 2015 was spotted in the birdbox on Thursday 16th April after which there was a new egg laid each day. They aren't
easy to spot, but by the 18th it looked like there were 3. See if you can spot them in the photo.
By mid April it seemed that the birds had beaten the bees - there were no more bee sightings after 15th April.
It was difficult spotting the eggs this week as the female was sitting on them constantly. When she did leave
the nest, she normally tried to cover the eggs, making them difficult to count.
One of the latest photos shows maybe eight or even nine eggs? Then look closely at the video - does she lay an egg?
There's one egg at the beginning, but are there two when she leaves?
Well, the long wait is over - the first young bird hatched on 7th May. By the evening of Friday, 8th May there were three or four big mouths
waiting to be fed.
The video shows the first hatchling as it begs for food before it's siblings arrive.
Only three of the eight or nine eggs seem to have hatched out by 17th May. There was at least one unhatched egg in the box, but what happened to the others
is not known. Maybe they hatched and the young birds died or maybe they are still buried in the nest.
From first light in the morning, both parents were constantly feeding the three chicks. There can be over 100 visits to the nest each hour!
In the latest video, the three young chicks can clearly be seen begging for food, and two get a nice big grub for breakfast.
During this week, the three chicks could be seen growing on a daily basis. From tiny little worms just a couple of weeks ago, they became cute little
balls of fluff and it looked like they could leave the nest at any moment.
One in particular looked slightly bigger than the other two and was constantly
testing his/her wings, strengthening its muscles and getting ready to move out into the big wide world.
You can see the difference in size in the video - "Bruiser" certainly seems to be the boss!
All three chicks fledged from the nest between 6.49am and 7.24am on 27th May. The videos below show
each one gathering the courage to leave, poking their heads through the hole and finally taking the plunge.
The parents only returned back to the nest a couple of times that day, probably checking that no one was left behind.
One of the youngsters was possibly spotted in a tree near some bird food, but who knows what happened to the other two?
Hopefully they made it and will return next year to raise their own families.