Last year's birds
Fluff roosts
Fluff is usurped
A truly excellent site about these birds
Visitors since 27th September 2000:
14th March 2000. There appear to be at least two pairs of birds taking an interest in our camera-equipped box. One pair has been occupying the territory for up to 5 minutes at a time, which is much longer than in recent days. The male comes, looks in, looks around, goes in, looks out to call the female, who arrives and they swap places inside the box. The male then looks in repeatedly, departs, followed after a minute or so by the female. The blossom is well-established on the flowering cherry trees now, but as yet there is no sign of new leaf growth on the trees. These new leaves are required for the caterpillars, who will provide the chief source of food for the hatched chicks. The birds are awaiting the right moment to start building the nest.
For comparison purposes, in 1999 the box was purchased on the 3rd April and the birds started to build their nest on the 4th (Easter Sunday 1999). That is 21 days later than now in respect of the turn of the year, and although it has been a warm winter and spring, perhaps the season is not much more than a week or ten days earlier this year.... so we are expecting nest building in the next three weeks.
15th March 2000. It was out impression that the birds visit the box more frequently in the morning. Accordingly, today we ran two 3 hour VCR recording sessions, from 8am to 11am and from 3pm to 6pm, when the light was fading fast. There were at least six visits an hour between 8am and 11am, but only one visit in the afternoon session, at 5pm. Two birds came and inspected the box, then beat a hasty retreat on the arrival of another bird.
16th March 2000. Ten visits to the box between 8am and 11am; five of these entailed a bird entering the enclosure.
17th March 2000. St Patrick's Day. Nine visits to the box between 8am and 11am;
five of these entailed a bird entry.
If the birds start to nest-build now, it will take 5 days
to build a nest, plus 11 days to lay 11 eggs at one a day,
plus 18 days to incubate the eggs until they hatch.
Thus the birds will need a supply of caterpillars in
5+11+18 = 34 days time, or about 5 weeks time.
We see here the sprouting of the
oak tree buds on the
common:-
The oak leaves are among the last leaves to sprout. Conversely, the hawthorn leaves are already out...
The birds will be monitoring the development of the new growths on the trees very closely, deciding just when to time their nest-building activity.
18th March 2000. A cold grey morning with a brisk North wind blowing straight into the nest box. 14 bird visits including 5 entries in the six hours from 7am to 1pm. Some human traffic up and down the garden during this time; for the first time this year one of the goldfish was visible in the pond, and a pair of bumblebees have been flying around. Frogs have been inspecting the pond also.
19th March 2000. Much activity today; there were 23 visits in the three hours from 9am to noon, 11 of which involved a bird entering the box. There is repeated calling across the garden this afternoon; we are not sure whether this is territorial behaviour or if it is mating behaviour. The second box, 100 metres away at the foot of the garden, has been visited. Inspecting inside it, we see much damage to the floor of the box, with a 4cm wide depression where the bird has pecked at the wood, and lots of wood shavings. What can it be trying to do? break out through the floor? The box hole is very small, only enough for a small bird. Perhaps a bird squeezed in, got trapped, and in a panic tried to break out downwards....
The hole was 1 inch diameter. We have enlarged it to 1.2 inches diameter.
20th March 2000. There were ten visits to the camera-equipped box between 8 and 11 am today, of which two visits involved a bird entering. The video recorder is started at about 8am and the recording reviewed at high speed later in the day. Sitting and waiting for a bird to arrive in real time reminds me of doing Neutron scattering experiments at the ILL in the 1970s, when a senior professor, impatient at the low count rate, was seen to look at his watch and mutter "I think there should be another neutron along any time now". So playing back the video at high speed has definite advantages.
21st March 2000. Vernal Equinox. UK budget day. Thirteen box visits but only one entry amongst them from 8am to 11am today.
22nd March 2000. Fourteen box visits from 8-11 am, five of them involving entry, and two of those involving both birds at once. There were a further 6 visits (3 entries) from 11.30am to 1pm, then none at all in the succeeding 90 minutes. Perhaps the birds had gone for a lunch break.
Here is a picture of a large ?male? bird measuring up, at about 11.30 this morning.
23rd March 2000. Only 4 box visits (2 entries) between 8 and 11am today. None at all after 2.45pm until dark. However, in the other box (box2) there is a quantity of nest materials. The nest building seems a bit desultory, perhaps the bird is having a practice.
24th March 2000. Fourteen visits, three entries, 6.45am to 9.45am. Then three visits, two of them having both birds in at once, between 10.15am and 1.15pm. In this picture the male has just arrived and settled at the left of the picture; the female (who entered first) is preparing to depart at the bottom of the picture.
25th March 2000. A starling looks in.
26th March 2000. We catch a female blackbird at dusk, trying to escape unsuccessfully through a closed window in the garage. After recording her picture, she sets off purposefully in the direction from where she was brought.
26th March 2000, also. The parus caeruleus have been most active in visiting the camera-equipped box today. The pair in box 2 have been adding to the nest material.
27th March 2000. April showers have arrived early. Heavy hailstorms and wind buffeting the box. We have put in place a new 1.1 inch diameter hole and painted the inside of the new wood matt black. There were 7 visits by the parus this morning, plus two visits by an aggressive looking starling who cannot get his head in as far this time. The parus entered the box once to gauge the new hole size and the paint job. No visits at all in the afternoon between 1pm and 6pm, but we are now on British Summer Time so that would be noon to 5pm GMT. No additions to the nest materials in box 2. It may be too cold.
28th March 2000. Another overcast, blowy, and cold day. Between 8am and 11am there were 10 visits to the box, three of them involving entry. No interlopers during this time. We were correct in deducing that there are two different males interested in the des res; it may be for this reason that nest building has not yet started. The first and third visits to the box were by a less-large male who had no difficulty in getting in and out. On his last visit he was accompanied by his mate who entered the box along with him. The second visitor, however, was a larger male and he definitely got stuck, trying for several minutes to squeeze himself out again.
We are not going to try to enlarge the hole. The amount of nest material in Box 2 has doubled today.
29th March 2000. Six visits including 4 entries between 10am and 1pm today. The weather forecaster says "grim"; there is a cold NE wind blowing the fine mizzling rain straight into the north-facing nestboxes today. The birds show no inclination to hang about on the outside of the box. The insides of the boxes are wet. The "stuck" bird has either been deterred or has lost weight overnight.
30th March 2000. Another grey overcast day today, but little wind and no rain. Six visits to the camera-box from 9am to 11am, including three entries, the last by the large bird who again got stuck trying to get out. Two more entries at about 6.45pm, the latest we have seen a bird visit the box for some time. This is about 45 minutes before local sunset. There was no additional nest building in box 2 today.
31st March 2000. Twelve visits, seven entries, two of them both birds at once, from 9.30am to 12.30pm. Here is a picture of the smaller male bird trying to deter the larger male bird who has arrived at the entrance at the same time. The wings and tail are spread to make the bird look maximally large and fierce. The nest building in box 2 is well-advanced today; we are going to leave this box undisturbed from now on, so there will be no more photos.
1st April 2000 (no fooling). Much activity today. Links have been placed above to avoid overburdening the page with inline images. The weather is much better, at least until mid-afternoon, and the birds are encouraged to visit the box repeatedly. From 8.40am to 11.40am there were 16 visits, 10 entries, and 6 entries with both birds. From noon to 2pm there were a further 13 entries, another 6 with both birds. To start with, the male bird spreads his wings in a less threatening way to attract the female.
She duly enters and they gaze like love birds, maintaining eye contact.
There is much measuring up activity, during which the male sticks his head into a corner
and then madly into another corner.
Later, a bird (the male?) arrives with a marker straw, landing in a flurry of wings
and then looking over (his?) shoulder at the straw.
On a later visit, a bird (the male again?) takes a dislike to a splinter of wood which he tries to strip
not just once, but repeatedly which causes much athletic activity.
2nd April 2000. Nest building seems to have started today. Rain set in late in the day which called a halt to the material transport.
3rd April 2000. A wet day, continuous rain overnight, and heavy rain in the morning put off the birds who have suspended their building activities. There was only one entrance to the box all day. One can now tell if a bird has been in, by the pattern of the straw on the box floor. We have bought a booklet about these birds which tells us that our observed behaviours are typical and normal, including waiting for the good weather and taking a few days with tentative nest building before the main body of material is brought in. The book is by Dr Jim Flegg, in the Shire Natural History series, ISBN 0 85263 716 0 having 24 pages for a price of 2.50 UK pounds. It also has some good pictures which we cannot post here because of copyright restrictions. For a copy of the booklet try http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/ and enter the ISBN as a ten digit string 0852637160
4th April 2000. At daybreak it was snowing and settling, with a strong N wind blowing wet into the nestboxes. There has been no sight of the birds at the box all day. In the afternoon we put out some "bird pudding" and refilled the peanut feeders. Immediately half a dozen parus caeruleus arrived and began feeding voraciously. By mid afternoon the snow had gone, replaced by rain. The site for the purveyors of the nestbox and camera we use is http://members.aol.com/birdcam1 . They are local to Guildford. The camera is a special low light level device with spectrum extending into the ir and the illuminators, after dark, are ir LEDs.
7th April 2000. At last the weather has warmed up and the birds have begun to build their nest in earnest. We have noticed that the number of visits to the box in a six hour period correlates quite well with the weather; on cold, dank, overcast days the birds are not inclined to search for nesting sites.
email d.jefferies@surrey.ac.uk David Jefferies 7th April 2000
