Fledgings and mysteries

A nest box round today checking all boxes in one section of wood that had no eggs during my last visit on Good Friday. En-route I had 5 open nests to check out, 4 Song Thrush and 1 Blackbird.


One Song Thrush brood (4) have fledged becoming my first fledged nest of the season -

 
Another has been predated, eggs hatched in two of them, and the Blackbird's have hatched

Song Thrush

Blackbird's

On to the nest boxes - most boxes without eggs in the section I surveyed today are now either empty, N4 or NL. A couple of mysteries/oddities have cropped up though starting with Box 10 which on the 14th contained 3 Great Tit eggs, cold and covered over. Today it contained 6 eggs uncovered and cold so potential scenarios are desertion, predation of female or delayed incubation. As there's been good weather lately delayed incubation is unlikely, there were no alarming birds nearby so we'll have to wait and see on this one. Another unexpected occurrence was box 7. Last Friday it was N2 so expecting N4 or NL today, I was not expecting exactly the same nest as last week with a couple of white bits of fluff added finished off with 7 cold eggs! The last oddity was box 45. According to the note book last Friday it was empty, today NL so this pair have either built a whole nest and lined it in 7 days (rare but possible) or my box round last week of 190 boxes was in actual fact only 189 (which I doubt). Who knows.....


Also had a pair of alarming LT Tit but as I had the ladders under my arm they will have to wait until tomorrow. I've put a set down before, turned my back for a quick comfort break and they got nicked. Didn't see or hear anybody either!