Bird Box Diary 2002

The Hatch and Feeding

Saturday, 11th May, 2002 The first eggs began hatching this morning.  I saw the first at 7.00 am when the female went outside.  At the time, I thought it was a dark feather that had landed on the eggs.  It was only when Mum returned that the 'feather' sat up and gaped!  The next hatched twenty minutes later. Both parents have been making several visits to feed the chicks.  On one occasion, they appeared to realise that the 'morsel' was too large and chattered to each other and then, beak-to-beak, pulled it apart to be fed to the young. The picture shows the female doing a Jimmy Durante impersonation with a piece of eggshell.  If you'd like to see the impression; click HERE (It's 213k and 9 seconds) The video linked to the picture shows her eating the shell and the lining.  It is 148k and lasts 21 seconds. It is now almost noon and there are only 3 eggs left.  Mum has just entered the nest with a grub and repeatedly called to the chicks.  Not one sat up to be fed so she ate it herself.

Sunday, 12th May, 2002 There are still at least two eggs left this morning.  It is difficult to see as Mum has only been seen to leave the nest a couple of times so far.  One is at nine o'clock and the other just below with a chick draped over it.  I will use a better picture as soon as I get one. The male is making frequent visits with a variety of grubs and insects.  Mum generally takes them from him and 'calls' the chick to order.  They appear to be full already as she is eating quite a large proportion of them herself!

Monday, 13th May, 2002 The sixth egg hatched yesterday afternoon and we saw that all had hatched by six o'clock this morning.  The picture shows the difference that a couple of days can make in the size of the gape.  Look at the two at the top of the picture and see the difference.  There is a short video that shows this more clearly.  It is 123k and lasts 15 second. It is wet, cold and windy today.  I saw the male in the mealworm feeder before seven so I went and gave them all an early breakfast today.  They are on extra rations as from now.  We also had a visit from the sparrowhawk at 6.50 last night.  She sat on the fence in the garden so I reached for the camcorder but was too late to catch it as it saw me and flew off.

Great Tit	Greenfinches
Canada Goose	Chaffinch

Tuesday, 14th May, 2002 Both parents were up early today.  I was at the computer by 5.30 but they were both out looking for food.  I managed to grab their visits onto the hard drive and you can see the results in the video that is linked.  It shows Dad coming in first and feeding a chick.  The chick then presents its rear and Dad take the faecal sac outside.  Three seconds later (edited out to save space) Mum arrives to do the same; only she swallows the sac.  If you'd like to see larger picture, it is HERE. (It is only 12k but 480 by 393)  Click the picture left for the video. (214k and 18 seconds)

Both parents were captured in the box feeding the chicks this morning.  After they had fed, they watched to see if the bottom would be presented.  As it wasn't, Dad left but Mum settled down to keep them warm, I assume.  The video is linked to the picture. (228k and 18 seconds) Just before the parents entered, the chicks had a bit of a shuffle.  There is a video of this (137k and 14 seconds).  Watch the pale chick that begins its ride from the nine o'clock position and finishes on top of the pile in the high noon position.

Friday, 17th May, 2002 Last night, I saw Mrs. BT sleeping on the rim of the nest cup.  I expect the chicks were wriggling too much for her to get any peace.   Also, we were strafed by the sparrowhawk again at about 8.10 but she appeared to miss and was seen flying off down the field.   This morning, we have had torrential rain, thunder and lightning.  I took the precaution of shutting everything down until the worst had passed and there was little risk of more lightning.  I have already had one modem blown up! Both birds are looking very wet and bedraggled.  I modified the mealworm feeder yesterday as the sparrows were taking too many compared to the bluetits.  Unfortunately, the hole was a little too small; maybe the rain has swollen the wood and shrunk the hole.  Anyway, I took the new 'O' rings off and have seen both birds taking worms.  I have decided that it is better to share with the sparrows than everyone go hungry. Here is a video of both wet birds feeding mealworms to the chicks.  (251k and 17 seconds) I counted 7 gapes. The eighth is at about 4 o'clock and is much smaller and weaker than its siblings.  Just look at the size of the worms compared to the chicks!

Saturday, 18th May, 2002 Rather sad news today.  I have been watching the chicks being fed since just after 5.30 this morning.  As yet, I have only been able to count six of them gaping at any one time.  I can see at least one very lifeless shape at the five o'clock position in the picture, right.  I know they were all alive yesterday but could see that the last two to hatch were still quite small (See above entry).  You can clearly see seven of them in yesterday's picture above.  If you click HERE, there is a large version of that picture and you can see all eight chicks.  The two smallest are at 12 and 3/4 o'clock. The weather, yesterday was atrocious.  We had almost continuous rain and Mum was always wet when she came in to feed and brood.  I refilled the mealworm feeder five times and we saw some pretty big examples being fed to the chicks. Mum has been cleaning the nest in her head-down position but seems unaware of the dead chick(s). I have changed the image on the right three times as I get a better, clearer one.  I will add more later, maybe with a video.  I shall be interested to see if and when one of the adults removes the bodies. As I was uploading this entry at 7.40am, I saw Mum remove a dead chick.  I will edit the video and add it later this morning.

Eight fifteen am This picture shows Mum removing one of the dead chicks.  She struggled for several minutes with it.  Once, she dropped it but eventually removed it.  We don't think that she took it very far as there were magpies on the patio within minutes. There is a video which shows the last struggle and removal.  Click on the picture.  It is 216k and 19 seconds.

Noon  Viv and I have watched the video and are pleased to confirm that there are still seven chicks as this picture shows. Six beaks are open and one closed. Mum seemed to find the dead chick at around 7.00 am.  She did not appear to understand what it was but tossed it onto the pile of chicks and continued to tidy the nest.  It soon got shuffled to the bottom and was then isolated at the 'south' end of the nest.  We assume that the other chicks were avoiding it as it was cold.  The female and her mate then resumed the business of collecting food and feeding the remaining chicks. Once she was aware of the chick, we saw her appear to be trying to get a good hold of it to remove it. But, as we watched, we made an unusual discovery.  We saw that, in fact she was plucking the downy feathers and incorporating them into her nest.  Recycling at its most basic? Eventually, she grabbed a piece of skin and removed the chick as is shown in the above video.

This morning, Mum was up before me and I was here by 5.30.  I put some food in the feeder and returned to 'do' the email, newsgroups and 'Dave's Daily's'.  These are all the sites that I visit every morning. The chicks are fine but there is still just one that is clearly less well developed than its siblings.  They are getting quite dark in colour as their feathers push through and I have seen them preening.  It looks itchy so I'm sure it must be!  I have also noticed that some of the eyes are beginning to open. There is a larger version of the picture HERE and a video linked to the picture left. It shows that the chicks didn't hear her enter but sat up when she 'yelled' at them!  You can also hear that they are making a noise, too. (239k and 12 seconds)

Here is a picture which is linked to another video.  This shows Dad arriving twice within about 20 seconds with a prepared mealworm.  Mum takes it to feed the chicks while he goes back to the feeder for another.  It is 365k and 28 seconds.

Tuesday, 21st May, 2002 This morning, I refilled the feeder with some of the 'survivors' and then started to watch the action on the computer.  It was amazing how quickly the parents discovered that there was food in there again and they both began to prepare mealworms.  This picture is a still from the video that is linked to it.  It shows both parents with enormous worms.  (There is a funny 'bleep' on the sound track for some reason!) The one that Dad (top) is holding in his beak sticks back beyond his eye! The video is 224k and 11 seconds. I also managed to get some video of the male getting a worm from the feeder and then 'processing' it on a branch nearby.  I will edit the video and add it later this morning. I am laying a laminate floor in the study so we are a bit disorganised and I have had to break down the network and rely on floppies to transfer images.

Here is the video of the male getting a mealworm. I have only included the part where he exits the feeder and takes a worm to the branch where he removes the head and gut.  The earlier part of the video is not very clear as he alights at the hole on the left and is difficult to see when inside.  It is 383k and 16 seconds.

Wednesday, 22nd May, 2002
The floor is laid and we are reconnected.  My kilo of mealworms, which I ordered on Monday from www.livefoodsdirect.co.uk arrived yesterday.  They are in a big bin in the garage.  I put a scoop in the feeder before six this morning and then sat and watched as both parents shuttled with food.  The chicks were certainly hungry.  I grabbed 12 minutes of video using 1.3 gigabytes of hard drive.  I haven't had time to watch it, yet but I will be interested to see how many trips they made in that time. The chicks are thriving and have had the feeder topped up every time I saw a parent exit without anything. That's about four times, so far!
I played the clip and counted 23 visits with meal worms and they were still hungry!

Thursday, 23rd May, 2002 This morning, we have seen the sun for the first time in days.  I was up before Mrs. Beatty.  The male arrived just after 5.30 with some food and that prompted her to leave the nest and me to fill the feeder.  They found it within a minute or two and a frenzy of activity ensued.  The picture shows Mum with an huge worm that one of the chicks consumes with some vigour.  Mum appears to watch in awe at its appetite before she dives, head first into the nest cup to do the housekeeping!  It is 242k and 14 seconds.  I have left the sound in so you can hear the cries of "Feed me!"

Friday, 24th May, 2002 The sun has been shining quite well this morning and it is still bright but extremely windy.  Unfortunately, the parent birds have not noticed that I have filled the feeder and so visits are fairly well spaced out.  Yesterday, I was refilling it as soon as I saw one of the birds was having to search inside. The nest in my box is becoming rather untidy.  Mum has been so diligent in her cleaning up that she has undercut the side walls and some of the rim has been pulled out over it and this has obscured the chicks.  Viv and I have been scrutinizing the activity and have not been able to see more than six chicks at any one time. I have been glued to my computer this morning, as I was hoping to catch the departure of some of David Jones' chicks. (http://www.mybitoftheplanet.com) I watched every one leaving.  I hope you didn't miss it!

Saturday, 25th May, 2002 Today has begun with some sunshine and the wind has dropped somewhat.  Yesterday, and again this morning, there has been a great deal of preening and wing testing.  The wings become a blur as they beat them very rapidly.  The video linked to the picture, right, shows this. I had the video running when I went to fill all the feeders this morning and I tapped the box lightly on my way back to see if they would sit up and gape.  I was somewhat surprised and alarmed that they were, in fact terrified of my being near and tended to cower in the nestcup for the whole time that I was on the patio.  Even when Mum came in with food, they stayed silent and motionless.  Mum realised that something was wrong and so left, still holding the food in her beak.  She returned a minute later and chirruped; whereupon they all sat up and relaxed.  I shan't try that again!