Saturday 16 June 2012

We left the nest alone for a few days after the disappointment in May, partly in case the adult returned and partly because we couldn't face the job. Then we opened up the nest box to empty it and clean it out.

In this side-view shot you can see how deep our blue tit mum made the nest - 5cm. It is mainly made up of moss plus a few feathers and fluff.

Here you can see how small the chicks were - about 15mm from beak to foot.

We also added a little modification to the inside of the nest box - a perch so it's easier for birds inside to reach the window and take a look outside - we have seen a perch on other models of nest box. You can see it on the right of the photo above. This will come in handy if ever we get a family that reach the fledging stage.

We left the web cam running for some weeks and saw one visitor but he or she only stayed for a few seconds. It is unlikely we'll get nesting visitors now so we have turned the nest web cam off. We'll keep an eye on the nest box just in case of any excitement.

We'll certainly be back next spring, hopefully we will have more luck then.

Although our blue tit didn't quite live up to expectations it was still fun sharing her journey through being a mum.

Until next time!