Bird Box Diary 2009 - Page Two


Video of her rising from the eggs

Video of the male feeding his mate.

Tuesday, 28th April
Last evening, the female arrived in the box quite early and seemed to settle down for the night as if incubation had started.  However, after an hour or so, she left and returned again at around 7.30 for the night.  I began to wonder whether she was going to lay number seven this morning.  I wasn't able to see from the video exactly when she laid but, when she got off the eggs to have a stretch, I could see all seven eggs in the archetypal shape of a small child's drawing of a flower!  I managed to capture the moment that the male came into the box to feed his mate; always a tender moment.  Yet, in the first clip, you will watch her have a stretch and see a shadow appear as the male arrives at the entrance.  She is heard either to hiss, "Buzz orf!" or whisper "Not now, Darling,"  depending on your point of view! 
She has been sitting on the eggs for most of the day, apart from the occasional 'comfort break'.  In the lower video, you will see the male feeding her.  Click the pictures to see the videos.

I wasn't able to watch the video input a great deal today as we had rather an eventful morning.  We had a J.C.B. and tractor to begin removing our Pembrokeshire hedge-bank from the front of the house.  It's a job that we have wanted done for years and finally took the plunge.  Unfortunately, with almost the first bucketful, the digger sliced through our mains power cable and the B.T. telephone line.  However, it was inevitable as the cable wasn't even buried beneath ground level but passed though the bank in an arc.  Luckily, there no-one was hurt.  In fact, no-one was even aware that anything had occurred until I found that we had a 'power cut'.  I checked with neighbours but they were not affected and then checked our junction box.  It was dead.  I rang the emergency lines for power and phones and the wheels began to turn.
The power boys arrived within a couple of hours and added a loop to get our power back for a cup of tea.  The B.T. engineers arrived a while later and also established our connection.  It seems that we may be charged for the damage but, since the cables were above ground and not marked, I feel we may have a case to refuse.  We shall see.  So, today has been doubly exciting with incubation beginning, cables breaking and being repaired and hedgebank GONE.  No more having to stand in the lane strimming it.  YES!!!  Result!
Wednesday, 29th April
The little minx has caught me out!  She laid another egg this morning which I first saw when she left the nest at around 6.45.  As she spent all day incubating yesterday, I assumed that she had a complete clutch.  Now I am wondering what tomorrow may bring!
The male continues to be more attentive than any I've seen in past years.  I caught him entering the nest to feed her again this morning.  It looked as if it was a small piece of sunflower kernel.  This afternoon, I grabbed the image on the left as it is rare to see eight eggs in this 'flower' formation.
I am going to order my mealworms today as I want this pair to find the mealworm feeder (plans here)  One year they didn't discover them in time to start to feed the chicks and it was such a cold, wet Spring that all the chicks perished.  I don't want that to happen again.
Click the picture for an edited video of her laying, the male feeding her and later, her leaving.

Thursday, 30th April
I am pleased to say that there were no more surprise eggs this morning.  Having started the capture at almost exactly 6.30, I was able to see her incubating and then her mate came in to feed her and she was all 'a-flutter' when she saw him.  After he left, she continued to sit for the next 30 minutes and then began to stretch.  Whilst doing so, the male returned to feed her but her reaction was not as friendly as she hissed at him but still took the offering.  She settled on the eggs again but left the nest after just a minute or so.
I have ordered my mini mealworms for the next six weeks and the first delivery will be next week.
There is another short, edited video of the events this morning if you click the image.
Friday, 1st May
It all looks much the same in the nestbox, today.  There won't be much to report until hatching starts which I hope will be around the 10th or 11th May.
I shan't update the diary unless there is something important to report.
Monday, 4th May
The mealworms arrived on Saturday morning so I made a new feeder and set it up on this morning.  In no time, the sparrows discovered it and were extremely miffed at not being able to get more than their heads through the small, 25mm holes.  However, they do seem to be picking off the adventurous worms.  The bluetits have not yet discovered it.
Tuesday, 5st May
I set Flix running yesterday (Jedi Day -May the Fourth...be with you!) between 06.17 and 11.12 and have edited two short sections which show how she fidgeted and turned during her stay in the box and how often she turned or attended to the eggs.  In this particular sequence, the male made no visits but in the second one, he made four visits in the 24 minutes between 09.53 and 10.17.  Since the camera was grabbing one frame every one second and plays it back at 25 frames per second, a sequence of 10 minutes will only last 24 seconds.  The first clip of her is 1 minute and 10 seconds long and the one of the male's visits is 33 seconds which correlate to around 30 minutes for the first video and almost 14 minutes for the second one in real time.  Altogether there were 25937 individual pictures.  I still haven't seen a bluetit at the mealworm feeder.
Video one


Video two
Tuesday, 12th May
I  have been unable to update because of a server problem and a lack of time.  However, hatching began on Monday morning and I saw the female eating the first egg shell at 6.37 am.  She left with most of it as soon as I started the capture.  She was back fairly quickly and found another egg was hatching.  She appeared to help the chick and then eat that shell, too.  The shell replaces some of the calcium that she lost in producing the shells.
The video shows the first two hatchings and her eating much of the shells.  Having eaten them, she settled down to await the next one.  Click the picture for the video. I have doubled the speed of her eating the second shell.
Later in the morning, more eggs hatched and by evening, there were just three to go. 



This video shows his first attempts
This one shows another one.

 Wednesday, 13th May
The remaining eggs have now hatched.  I have had such a busy time since Sunday that I have hardly watched the nest.  However, yesterday, I was able to see that the male of the pair has a problem!  Like most men, it's his aim!  He has been coming into the box with a grub and calls to the chicks who gape and await eagerly for the food.  In the first video captured yesterday morning, you will see seven gapes and one remaining egg.  He tried several mouths and missed every time.  Fortunately, the female arrived and was heard to give him his marching orders and she began to feed them.
In the second video, he was trying for six minutes to find a mouth and was clearly becoming more frustrated and agitated.  The more he fretted, the more he would peep out of the hole for help from his mate.  He even seemed to raise his eyes to the Heavens to ask for HELP!   I saw him go the entrance hole six times to see if she was about.  In the end, he gave up and left with the food.  Useless beggar!
I have edited a video clip which shows this.  It also shows that there was one egg remaining yesterday.  Click the image for a larger version.

I am concerned that the nest is left empty for quite long periods; sometimes it's several minutes.  It's not that warm today, only 11° C.  Also, in spite of the mealworm feeder being suspended in the hawthorn tree, they still haven't used it.  I am now tossing scoops of worms out for the sparrows and robin who seem very appreciative!  I have only just used the first week's supply and now can start on this week's lot before a fresh batch arrives on Saturday!  Ho hum.  Something will be grateful, anyway.  There does seem to be a good supply of the little green caterpillars that are their preferred food.  It is these that turn the feathers of the fledglings green.
Friday, 15th May
We were out all day yesterday so I didn't have a chance to update.  All seems to be going well, at present.  I still haven't seen them use the mealworm feeder but there seems to be a pretty good supply of other food.  The greatest worry at present is the weather.  It's clearly not good in Derby as there has been no play in the Test Match today.  It's cold, wet, and windy over this side of the country, too.  Fortunately, the male is getting better with his aiming and is doing a great job with helping to feed.  I have been able to watch the feeding today and I made an interesting observation.  I saw that the nest-cup is remarkably circular.  This is because the chicks are so small they haven't started to clamber onto the walls or demolish it.  It is apparent that it is the constant turning that the female does in the nest that keeps this very uniform circular shape.  I then realised that she always seems turns to the right i.e. clockwise.  I can't remember seeing her reverse the direction so this observation begs the question "Do birds in the Southern Hemisphere always turn anti-clockwise?"  Answers on a postcard please.
On one occasion, the female entered with what appeared to be a large spider.  She made several attempts to cram it into an open gape without success.  During this time, the male entered and fed a chick (better aiming) and she was still scrunching and cramming this hairy thing.  Eventually, she gave it to one of the smaller chicks and seemed to be as amazed as I was that it hadn't choked the poor little thing!  I have zoomed the video to try to make the size clearer.  The colour is a bit odd because this was quite early today and it was very dull outside, still.


Sunday, 17th May
I was able to watch the feeding yesterday and can confirm that the parents are feeding whole sunflower kernels to the chicks.  If I were the type to give the pair names, it would have to be Wayne and Waynetta !!  Instead of feeding nice, juicy 'steaks' of green caterpillars, they opt for the readily available equivalent of pot-noodle!  Of course, I may accused of being a little hasty in this judgement as it could be that there is a revolution towards vegetarianism by the local Bluetit population; but I doubt it!
I have edited a couple of short video clips which show the parents feeding these whole kernels.  In the first one, keep an eye on the chick that is fed it.  It's at about the 4 o'clock position.  It seems unable to swallow the seed and, eventually, 'Wayne' removed it from the family home.  Maybe he wanted a refund?
In the second clip, both parents feed the seeds to a tribe of Spuduliakas!


The male with a kernel


Both birds with kernels
Tuesday, 19th May
Against all odds the chicks appear to be thriving.  I have only ever been able to count seven gapes at any one time but haven't seen either a dead chick or an un-hatched egg.  Mealworms are still off the menu and sunflower kernels are the preferred snack.  The picture on the left shows six gapes quite clearly.  This is a frame from the video that was captured this morning.  I have adjusted the colour as it appeared a lot greener than shown here.  You will see this in the video.  This is partly because it was taken at around 7.30 am but mostly because the rain has been dropping in stair-rods this morning and the sky was very dark.

I am very surprised that they are all doing so well as conditions of temperature, rain and wind are much the same as the year when we lost the whole brood.  I can only assume the sunflower kernels are good for chicks!  The edited video shows two feeds about one minute apart.


Six gapes (Click the picture)
 


Seven chicks

Wednesday, 20th May
I have managed to get some video of seven chicks, at last.  The parents are still providing a diet of sunflowers interspersed with grubs and spiders.  The chicks appear to be thriving.  I shall be quite interested to see whether they will appear as green as usual since they don't seem to be having the numbers of little green caterpillars as normal.  The weather is still pretty dire so maybe the sunflower diet was their salvation, this year.  They still ignore the mealworms although they get very close to them but don't recognise them as a food source.  Very disappointing!  The picture shows the seven chicks but we don't know if there is an un-hatched egg or whether there was a fatality.  If you click the image, there is a larger version.  The video shows both parents feeding and seven mouths.


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