Live Stream of my Bird Box - Bluetits Nesting - Chicks Hatching Now

Minxy said:
Fingers crossed all seven hatch! I’m watching this thread with interest. We had our first baby bird in the garden yesterday which was a sparrow being fed by Mum.mwe are eagerly awaiting the arrival of all the baby **** with their dodgy flying and aborted landings.
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Yeah I really hope so.

We've had some baby blackbirds (pictures on P9) but still waiting for sparrows which are hard at work at the moment, we've got a breeding pair of robins too. Then we should have greenfinches and goldfinches a bit later in the year.

Thats all we get here really. We have the odd chaffinch and siskin visit the feeder but from further away, they're not nesting close enough to see any young ones.
 
Not a great deal to report over the weekend - which is good news I guess.

No more midnight adventures.

We've noticed that the male hasn't been coming as frequently to feeder her and we are now pretty sure hes supplying three females with food not just two.

So she is leaving the nest more often to find her own food but usually not for more than 10 minutes at a time but definitely more often than the first few days of incubation when he was around a bit more.

We are also seeing her peering out of the box and calling for him when he hasn't been for a while but that has mixed results.

Hope that he has his game face on when they hatch as I think both parents will need to find as much food as possible to give the chicks the best chance.

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Speaking of feeders I was loitering trying to get you a picture of scruffy up close but she didn't come out while I was there. I'll keep trying.

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Nazbit said:
@Tony Edwards
We have some feeders. You'll see the male bringing her clumps of yellow peanut butter.

We also have sunflower hearts and peanuts which the bluetits have used in the past but this pair are not particularly interested in those.
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Ah yes I remember now. makes it easier for the female if she has to start feeding herself and the youngens.

My bluetits, sparrows, blackbirds and starlings all take sunflower seeds Ive even seen them fly off with them to either feed the females or the chicks. After the suet and mealworms are done of course. The bluetits love the suet blocks.

I wish I had bulk bought some peanutbutter jars before lockdown as I know they like them but Ive seen the squirrels do some funky stuff to be able to get to it as I put them in cages.

Ive heard niger seeds is a must for finches.
Minxy said:
The baby starlings have arrived today and oh my word are they loud and demanding. I feel sorry for the parents.
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Haha yeah I have them as well at the moment. It seems like hundreds and they havent even really started yet with the noise. It gets much worse as they grow a bit.
 
I have some mealworms but I've not put them out yet. Holding off for hatching.

I've also got some suet balls and nyjer seed. The goldfinches do go to town on the nyjer but they also like the sunflower hearts a lot.

Annoyingly they'll compete with every other bird for the sunflower seeds and once they've run our they'll smugly sit on their nyjer feeder while the other birds search for the last crumbs of sunflower.

Luckily we don't have squirrels around here so don't have to contend with that problem but I can imagine that's a nuisance. They're so agile and crafty as well.
 
You’re very lucky. We don’t get many finches, we saw goldfinches and bullfinches a couple of times last year but that was it. We get Robins, sparrows, starlings, bluetits, greattits, coaltits and long tailedtits and woodpeckers have become regular visitors. They brought two babies into the garden last year. The male is already visiting us a lot so we are hoping for a repeat performance. The squirrel is also a regular visitor although we try to discourage him whenever we can.

We have just invested in a squirrel proof seed feeder but the birds don’t seem to have found it yet but are costing us a fortune in peanuts and fat balls.
 
They go through it at an alarming rate in the height of summer don't they? Especially once the sparrows are on their second or third brood and the young ones are roaming around in a gang.

Goldfinches are probably are our main visitor now by numbers followed by sparrows. We also get greenfinches, bluetits, robins and blackbirds daily. Then more rarely chaffinches, greattits and siskins.

We discourage starlings and crows because there is lots of farmland around us and they're already there in big numbers so if we happen to catch their attention we end up being inundated, like 30 birds plus.

My record is 21 goldfinches on my feeders at once - now that I can cope with!
 
Here's a picture of the male feeding her in the bushes. Starting to notice more and more that rather than him come in to the box to feed her, she is coming out to meet him in these bushes.

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Not the best picture as I was inside the house and they were in some bushes about 20m away but best I could do at short notice!

Will try to get some closer ones.
 
Minxy said:
You’re very lucky. We don’t get many finches, we saw goldfinches and bullfinches a couple of times last year but that was it. We get Robins, sparrows, starlings, bluetits, greattits, coaltits and long tailedtits and woodpeckers have become regular visitors. They brought two babies into the garden last year. The male is already visiting us a lot so we are hoping for a repeat performance. The squirrel is also a regular visitor although we try to discourage him whenever we can.

We have just invested in a squirrel proof seed feeder but the birds don’t seem to have found it yet but are costing us a fortune in peanuts and fat balls.
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Bull finches?

That's amazing.

We get gold finches 24/7, sometimes 11 at a time.
We also get beautiful green finch. My favourite finch.
We also get green finch
 
Omg. Less than a minute ago a sparrow hawk just grabbed a pigeon in the garden. Pigeon got away! Missed it by a second getting a pic!

Never ever seen that before
 
413x said:
Omg. Less than a minute ago a sparrow hawk just grabbed a pigeon in the garden. Pigeon got away! Missed it by a second getting a pic!

Never ever seen that before
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I had one come and take a young sparrow last year. Couldn't believe it either.

I believe it would probably have been a female to go after a pigeon? The males are smaller and stick to comparatively smaller prey sparrows / finches / **** etc.
 
Nazbit said:
I had one come and take a young sparrow last year. Couldn't believe it either.

I believe it would probably have been a female to go after a pigeon? The males are smaller and stick to comparatively smaller prey sparrows / finches / **** etc.
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Last time our local sparrowhawk missed it's target and ended up stuck in the hedge squaking away. It managed to wriggle free and drop down to the ground, where it sheepishly extracted itself and flew off :D It made a hell of a racket though!
 
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