Last year's birds
Fluff roosts
Fluff is usurped
A truly excellent informative site about these birds
David
Jones's
site with nesting Parus caeruleus, about 8 miles away
Visitors since 5th May 2000:
26th May 2000. A truly horrid day today, with the rain starting at about lunch time, leaving (since yesterday) 19.5 mm in the rain-gauge by 6pm. Our birds are on the home straight now - - we expect the nestlings to fledge between Thursday 1 June and Saturday 3 June. They are feeding the youngsters efficiently and with an apparent understanding that they don't have to pace themselves at this stage. Here are the nestlings.
For comparison purposes, here is yesterday's picture (25th May) of the chicks in nest-box 2, who are about a week behind in development. A week clearly makes a lot of difference.
Two of the nest-box 1 nestlings appear dominant. We have dubbed these "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee".
The brood still displays gaping beaks, indicating hunger.
One of the Tweedles tries to steal a march on his siblings by presenting himself eagerly towards the hole. He had better be careful; the greater spotted woodpecker on the nut feeder outside may take an interest, and woodpeckers have been known to seize over-eager nestlings through the nest hole.
The nestlings are so eager, in fact, and so forward, that the adult birds resort to feeding from a perch in the nest hole.
After the frantic feeding in the rain, our female bird looks dishevelled during this brief rest.
Finally it gets dark, and the female bird subsides thankfully on top of the nestlings, who are still nicely contained in the expanded nest cup. She is worn out; we can tell this as she sleeps motionless on top of the heaving chicks, without frequent readjustments of position or preening activity. This is the most calm and tranquil female bird we have seen during the entire nesting process. The nestlings, on the other hand, are seen to be busy scratching and preening underneath her, at least from what can be seen of them (mostly beaks) at her margins.
email d.jefferies@surrey.ac.uk David Jefferies 26th May 2000