Today (and tomorrow) has been spent trying to fill in the gaps in the nest box scheme - size of full clutches, species, and boxes still at NL. The aim of the day was to extract all the missing information from Stennack Wood, which is Area 1 in the woodland. I had thought about and allowed all day for this. A beautiful sunny morning brought the birds to life, many females off feeding rather than sitting tight and being fed on the nest. As a result all boxes but one were complete by lunchtime. Huge bonus.
The afternoon was spent in 10 Acre Wood, the sun had gone in, conditions became cooler and the birds slowed down a little. One box was known to contain Great Tit which are more sensitive to disturbance than Blue Tit's so, rather than check the box I hid behind a tree waiting for her to come out and feed. After 10 minutes or so the male began to call, this is it I thought, she's coming off. Quite the opposite actually as landing in some holly very close to the box the female appeared cleaning her bill. She was already out and had just finished feeding! I got up quickly, thankfully she saw me and flew higher up allowing me to inspect the box safely.
Another oddity turned up today, the 3rd box in the woods this season to have eggs laid on bare wood. Cant really work out what on earth is going on with this.
presumed Great Tit on bare wood
Your coal tit nest is very similar to ours. We visited tonight, but once again, for about the 6th time she was sitting! We stood back and waited and within 10 minutes the male came and called and out she shot. We whizzed over and then the fun began. We have the endoscope on some wire so we have some control of the camera, but as the nest turned out to be a good 8" deep and around a corner at the end all we successfully saw were 2 little nude chicks. Still it is a record. :)
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