Titwatch - Goodbye

This will be the last Titwatch post as when we woke at the weekend the babies had already started to leave the nest.  Dad noticed a lot of hussle and bussle about outside both Lady and Old Blue were sitting on the washing line outside the nest box chirping away.  He took this last video of all 5 chicks together having their morning feed.

When I came down to breakfast 2 of the babies had already left and I rushed to turn the camera on to catch the remaining 3's last moments in the box.  As you can see they are flying as best they can inside the box even coming right up to the camera.  I literally just caught the tail end of the 3rd chick leaving the nest.

The last 2 were a bit more hesitant, one kept flying to the hole and then got too nervous and go back into the box. They seemed quite happy to stay where they were and be fed more by Lady and Old Blue and play with each other in the box.  Just as this clip ends did the number 4 leave the nest.

And then there was one, this baby is a little smaller than the others but finally got the courage to leave.  All of them roosted in a tree at the bottom of the garden over night and I'm sure we heard them chirping away the morning after.  I'm sad to see them go but hopefully they will be visiting us again next year.

Thank you all for following I hope you enjoyed it.  If you would like to see some extra footage check out our youtube page.  Or revisit my whole series of posts by clicking on the Titwatch image below.

Titwatch

The chicks have finally broken free of the nest.  They now quite happily flap around and stretch their wings, it's amazing to see but also quite sad as very soon now they will be leaving us.  All 5 babies are strong and healthy, unfortunately the runt of the family died early on so these 5 have been very well fed by their parents.

We also spotted an unhatched egg, this must have been from the previous inhabitants and just got buried at the bottom of the nest.

Lady is no longer roosting with them at night as they are so big, so instead they huddle together for warmth.  You will notice some of these videos have sound; the motion detector doesn't record sound but if we record manually it does.  The chicks really do chirp away all day chatting to each other they are so cute.

Titwatch

The chicks are getting so big!! They have started to destroy the nest slightly as they are wiggling about and stretching their wings.

Lady and Old Blue are doing an excellent job of bringing them lots of food, especially caterpillars.  Although the one that Old Blue has brought back in the clip below is so big it hardly fits in their mouths.  He has quite a bit of difficulty getting them to take it.

To tell the difference between the two, Old Blue always feeds from the bottom of the nest nearest to the camera.  Lady goes to the far side of the nest; she also has a wider band across her eyes and feeds the chicks much quicker.

Titwatch

This is the new name my friends at work have coined for my regular posts about the blue tits in the garden, in relation to BBC's Springwatch; nothing to do with scantily clad women; just so you know!!  Although it did amuse me when I was told of a very funny conversation between my co-workers Sally and Janet it went something like this:

Sally - Have you seen Sarah's tits??

Janet - tits?

Sally - They are bright pink!!

Janet - WHAT!?!?

I'm also happy to tell you that the babies are doing very well and have just started to grow some fluffy patches, their feathers will be coming through very soon.  Unfortunately the runt of the family has not survived, he/she/it was accidentally pushed out of the nest and Dad had to mount a rescue mission to put it back in again.  But we believe that it got too cold out on its own and perished soon after.

On a lighter note the other babies are brilliant and Old Blue and Lady are doing very well to keep them all fed and clean. They are just starting to open their eyes so will look a little less alien like in a few days.  To watch all the latest videos don't forget to follow us over at youTube.

Hatchlings

Returning from my craft weekend with Gemma I got the news that the blue tits eggs have started to hatch.  Three hatched over the weekend and one more yesterday.  They are bright pink, not very pretty with no feathers at all and have huge yellow mouths.  Old Blue and Lady are doing very well keeping all the babies very well fed.

Too well actually they are returning every few minutes with juicy caterpillars, ants and flies that the babies are very full.  Old Blue must be a first time father as he hasn't quite got the hang of feeding and tends to give the bugs to Lady to feed to the chicks, I'm sure he will get better with time.

To watch all the videos don't forget to check out our youtube page!!

Lots Of Eggs

So our little female blue tit (still without a proper name) has been very busy over the past few days.  In total she has laid 7 eggs, although we think that one of these may have been left over from the previous resident.  She has stopped going out as much and has started going to bed very early so she must be very comfortable with the box and preparing for when the chicks hatch.  Old Blue (the male) is not being the best father in the world and only pops his head in a few times a day to bring her food.  But hopefully he will step up his game because those chicks will need feeding a lot!!

Two years ago we had to help hand rear the chicks after their parents never returned to the nest, they were a few weeks old so already quite strong but still needed round the clock feeding.  Mum and Dad managed to feed and 'toilet' them for a couple of days but in the end took them to the rescue centre to be cared for.  I think the 5am starts and half hourly feeds were a bit too much for them!!  Here's a few memories of that time...

Hope you are enjoying our blue tits, visit YouTube here to watch all the videos or stay tuned here and hopefully we will have baby chicks very soon!!

New Neighbours

Last weekend we had some very unfortunate news, not only did we find out that the wildlife sanctuary had so many volunteers for releasing hedgehogs they had run out. I only hope they all go to good homes, we will just have to wait until next year.

Also, just days after my blog post about the Blue Tits in our garden the female went missing and didn't return to roost at night like she had every day previously.  The male stayed for a few days calling out but he never entered the box, we can only presume that the female was killed by a cat or hawk.

Dad left the camera running every day hoping that another family would move in and yesterday we finally captured this.

She hasn't laid any eggs yet but she seems to really like feathers and has brought lots back to the box for bedding.  I loved my friend Sally's suggestion of Old Blue for the male's name, but am still looking for the perfect name for the female, so please comment below with your suggestions.

Our Blue Tits

For as long as I can remember we have had resident Blue Tits in the garden.  For the past couple of years my dad has been videoing the blue tits with a special webcam built into the roof of the bird box.  This year is no exception and he has perfected the nesting box and webcam setup and I must say the video he's getting is brilliant and in HD; so make sure to change the quality to 720p and watch them full screen!!

Below are the first few episodes of the saga, you can see the female blue tit settling in, getting the nest ready and looking after her first egg.

Isn't she sweet, I can't wait for the babies to be born, they really do look like little balls of fluff.  So be sure to follow the whole saga on You Tube.  You can subscribe to get regular updates and I will be posting the best videos here too.  So please visit the site and remember to Like our videos.

A little later in the year we hope to be receiving some hedgehogs from the wildlife sanctuary to release into the wild (we do this every year), I will make sure to get some photos and video of that too.  They are so cute although a little spiky, they are also extremely nippy and can escape from anywhere in the blink of an eye.  Last year one escaped in the house and it took us hours to locate it curled up behind and underneath the TV cabinet, it then took a further hour to move everything off the cabinet so we could reach over the top to extract it.  Hopefully this year they will behave, but probably not!!

Now I need your help, if you have any ideas for what to call the blue tit's please leave a comment below, I can't keep calling the female and male so I need lots of ideas!!  There may even be prizes for the best names!!