Blue Tit and a Goldfinch

Young Blue Tits

It's been a while coming, but finally we have had some young Blue Tits coming into the garden to be fed by their long suffering parents. It seems to have been a fairly good year for fledged youngsters as we have had up to ten coming in, although I am sure that these are two different families as I have seen at least three different adults accompanying them.

Blue Tit

We have a nest box fixed to our house which I won in a spin the wheel type of competition at the British Bird Fair a couple of years ago. It was the `top` prize at the Bird Watching magazine stand. Up until this spring it has stood empty and I had toyed with the idea of moving it, but along with one thing and another, I just never got around to it. 

I am glad that I didn`t as this year we have had the `cheep` of young Blue Tits coming through our kitchen window as we stand at the sink washing up. The shots below show one of the young waiting for the adult to return with a tasty morsel or two, but I am sure that he is wondering what bird he is, although I don`t think birds can read!

Just in case there is any concern over the birds identity, here comes Mum or Dad just to let the youngster know!

Just hanging around

My, the little ones grow up so fast, don`t they?!

I bought a new feeder the other day, a fat cake holder for the bargain price of a £1, including a fat cake! The juvenile Blue Tits have quickly found this source of nutrition and are making short work of the contents. There have been up to 8 visiting at any one time and have soon realised that hanging from the feeder is the only way to get a beakful, the Great Tit young have been looking on in wonder!

Encouraging signs ; Final update

I knew it would happen, but it was still a disappointment when it did.

I came home from work today to see a couple of recently fledged Blue Tits sitting on my bird food stand looking forlorn. No visits were being made to the box situated on the back fence. My Blue Tits had fledged and for another year I had missed it! Two of the young did have the decency to hang around for a while, but they soon got fed up and flew into the trees never to be seen again. I will never know how many young managed to fledge, but hopefully however many there were, they will live long enough to become adult birds and themselves continue the species.

Feeding time!

The Blue Tits are still feeding their young, but with increased frequency. The young have now taken to sticking their heads up at the hole on the nest box, apparently impatient for their next feed, they wait and wait, for all of 10 seconds and then their parents come with a juicy aphid or piece of fatball to relieve their hunger pains!

I am assuming that these young will fledge in a few days. The weather forecast is not too great for tomorrow, so it will probably be in the middle of the week when I am at work!

Encouraging signs ; Another update

Things went a bit quiet on the Blue Tit front for a while and I began to get worried, but earlier this week I noticed the pair making very frequent visits to the nest box and these visits were made with little caterpillars in their beaks!

The pair are gradually becoming slightly scruffy, to say the least, but are doing a great job in feeding their young. I have no idea of the numbers of chicks and so I will have to wait for at least a week and a half before there may be signs of fledging. Blue Tit young leave the nest when they are between 16 and 22 days old.

Encouraging signs ; An update

The Blue Tits have finally started nest building in the box they were checking out a few weeks ago. There have been a few worrying moments, most notably when the local moggy took an interest and started sitting on top of the box, hence the rather `pointy` screws in the new photo, hopefully these will keep the cats at bay without causing any hurt! Other than that the pair are doing a fine job and will hopefully in time lay some eggs. I will report again with any progress.

Encouraging signs

Yesterday morning I noticed a pair of Blue Tits prospecting the home-made nest box that is attatched to our back fence (this box was used last year by a pair of Blue Tits). They were taking it in turns to go in and out and making several journeys to and fro. I have yet to notice any nesting material being taken into the box, but I am keeping my fingers crossed!