Nesting season 2001
Broad Street, Guildford, UK.
Page one.
Roosting page, October 2000 to February 2001 (previous)
9th February 2001. As we have seen ("roosting page") the birds have started to introduce test-pieces of nesting moss into the box. Today a starling has been trying to enlarge the hole sufficiently to gain entry. Our (male) bird flies in from the great outside yonder, and establishes his territorial rights. "This is my box".
When the starling sticks its head in and tries to chase our bird away, there is a vigorous reaction, with tail and feathers spread, as if to say "go away".
14th February 2001. A second roosting bird has been found in one of the other garden birdboxes. It was disturbed during routine nestbox maintenance just after dusk. In our camera-equipped box, the first bird came in at 17:19, that is just 5 minutes after local sunset, and nestled down amongst various pieces of moss which had been imported during the day. Feeding arrangements in the garden include peanut feeders, and sunflower seed feeders. There is also a seed and fat ball. These are suspended from a length of copper antenna wire, just above head height. Traffic on these feeders is heavy during the daylight hours.
16th February 2001. This evening we found a Parus Caeruleus in a third nesting box. This box is equipped with a removable glass screen and a removable wooden end, which both slot in to grooves in the front and back walls of the box. It can be rotated on its mounting screw, and a little dexterity produced the following pictures, after dark, during the roosting phase. When the bird had adapted to the human intrusion, it spent time as an interested observer of the human and camera, watching the activity with beady eyes. The nestbox hole was temporarily blocked with a handkerchief; after normality was restored the bird settled down again and made no attempt to leave through the now-open hole.
Here follows a picture of the underside of the bird, sitting on the end glass screen.
And below is a second take
The next picture gives an idea of the long tail, used for acrobatics when flying, and for fanning out as a deterrent to other birds.
Finally, cuddled up in a corner of the box, we see the bird's characteristic colouring. At this time of year, during courtship, the colours are strong and vivid.
Our resident bird in the video-equipped box has been showing off his desirable residence to an interested female today. There has been feather-display and much trilling (in response) on the part of the female, looking in from outside. Variable amounts of moss are to be seen; in the fourth nesting box there is evidence of occupancy also, from small pieces of moss which have appeared in the last few days.
It has been remarked that these birds don't like to have their nesting boxes or sites too close to each other or close to feeding stations. From our observations, this may be true sometimes but does not seem to be true here. The boxes in this instance are all within 30 metres of each other (100 feet).
7th March 2001. Our box number 1, with the roosting bird since 1st October 2000, continues to be occupied. We have emptied it, removing a large accumulation of droppings. Our box number 2 is also occupied (first observed on 6th March 2001). Box number 2 was also used to raise a family last year, of which we took colour pictures (which are available elsewhere on this site and its extensions). Box number 3, equipped with a glass side, and in which the pictures in colour (above) were taken on 16th February 2001, has been equipped with a smaller entrance hole and has also been revarnished and cleaned carefully. At present it is not occupied. It is hung on an East facing wall, at about 2 metres above ground, and gets the morning to mid-day sunshine. The other boxes are on North facing walls and get little sun except very early and very late in the day.
26th March 2001. The clocks have now changed to summer time; our roosting bird appears in box 1 regularly at about 18:00 GMT which is 19:00 BST. In box 2, the nesting materials grew significantly and were then removed by the birds. Box 2 is now nearly empty and is no longer being used as a roost. The third box, box 3, with the glass end viewing screen, has not been occupied at night since the pictures above were taken on 16th February. Considering our experience last year, when boxes 1 and 2 were not being used as roosts at this stage, occupancy may happen later. It was not until well into the nest building phase (after 7th April) that the birds occupied the boxes at night. At present, roosting in the evening is significantly earlier (up to 50 minutes earlier) in cold weather (0 Celsius) than it is in normal weather (8-10 Celsius).
28th March 2001. The bird in box 1 failed to come in to roost last night. A black cat and some feathers have been seen in the garden, but it is possible that its meal was a pigeon. The opportunity was taken to clean out box 1, again, of its many droppings. Two small dark feathers were lying in the bottom of the box; is there any part of a Parus caeruleus where the feathers are nearly black? In any case, the hole is too small for any of the common predators to pass through. Box 2 has a small length of fresh moss today, which was not there last night. We are puzzled by the way test pieces of nesting material are placed in, and then removed from, these boxes. Our experience in the previous years is that boxes which are ultimately used as nests are kept scrupulously free of droppings; usually, a box containing nesting material does not also contain droppings, and a box with droppings has no nesting material. It is for this reason that we have been cleaning out the dirt from time to time, hoping to encourage nest building. In box 1 last year, serious building started on the 7th April. The box had not been occupied as a roost prior to that date.
Old birdsite http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/D.Jefferies/bird/birdsite.html
Lifeforms pictures http://www.eryptick.net/lifeforms.htm
Email dj@eryptick.net
diary continues......