At a local site 2 pairs of Sparrowhawks have regularly bred and fledged youngsters over the last few years, Unfortunately this year both nests would appear to have failed as it's now mid July and there is none of the familiar calling of the youngsters and no activity at both nest sites. Chicks hatched at one nest as they could be seen in early June. I can't help thinking this is a knock on effect of the wet spring and the failure of a number of Blue/Great tit nests. Sparrowhawks tend to time the hatching of their chicks to coincide with the fledging of young tits which make up a percentage of the food source. If their are too few chicks then there's not enough food for them.

Only 1 Robin chick this year, don't know whether I should be happy we've got any or worried we haven't got more.

I've not had any Swifts nest on my Swinton house for six years and this is the first year for 14 years that there have been no Swifts at all nesting in any of the houses in my road.

Also both families of Starling chicks which were in nest boxes on the side of my house all died in the box. Only 2 Coal tits out of 7 left the nest box in my garden and the Blackbirds lost all 4 chicks to the family of Magpies in the tall Birch tree behind my house.

Just slightly deviating from the issue of Blue and Great Tits on this thread but in relation to the reduction in small birds this spring and issues with migration. In th early 90's when we first moved into our house in Swinton we had 3 pairs of Swifts nesting in the eaves and a number of houses nearby had a healthy number of the birds nesting. Over the years a number of nest sites have been lost, mostly due to ignorance by people blocking the holes up or roof renovations ( and these are the same people who will put up nest boxes and feed birds all the year round !!!!!!). I've purposely left the eaves alone, however this year i have no nesting Swifts and numbers in the area are continuing to decline.

Mark Rigby wrote:

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Andy Bissitt wrote:

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There must be a substantially lower number of caterpillars around this year and I fear the worst.

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Could it be that the moths are late this year-just like a lot of the breeding birds. The Blue and Great Tits in my garden seem to be doing just fine bringing beak fulls of caterpillars to the nest. Just a thought

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That's good to hear, Mark. Notice that I did say macro moth numbers were reduced, and whilst it is true I hardly saw any micro moths either, they could be relatively unaffected. I know that tortrix caterpillars are a major source of food for many small birds. Perhaps some species of bird did delay nesting just long enough to allow moths to catch up. However, only time will tell if you are witnessing an isolated occurrence of successful nesting. Even then, the young birds may not find enough to eat from hereon in (look at today's weather for a start - with more to come this week).

Is a possible reason for our migrants being late here, or not coming at all, down to the weather at the crucial migration times? Strong winds in their wintering grounds at a time when they should be on the move would surely hamper them. Poor weather here too can't help. April was particularly cold with snow on the Pennines and in other parts of the country plus it was the wettest on record with severe flooding in many parts. Those that made it here would have found food hard to come by at a crucial time, and I assume lots didn't make it here at all.
Just an idea, I am no expert, but there does seem to be some correlation between weather patterns and our migrants.

Andy Bissitt wrote:

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There must be a substantially lower number of caterpillars around this year and I fear the worst.

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Could it be that the moths are late this year-just like a lot of the breeding birds. The Blue and Great Tits in my garden seem to be doing just fine bringing beak fulls of caterpillars to the nest. Just a thought

A bit of evidence that things are tough for nesting birds, and which I feel will lead to a big drop in birds seen in gardens later in the year. Last night I caught just 8 macro moths of six species in my trap in two and a half hours. On almost the corresponding date last year, I caught seventeen species (not sure how many in total). The year before that it was fifteen species. There must be a substantially lower number of caterpillars around this year and I fear the worst.

everywhere ive been in the last few weeks numbers of small birds ,warblers etc are well down on even recent years and massively down on 10 years ago-its sad but true,somewhere we are losing them,whether its in the wintering grounds ,on passage to this country or lack of food,more predatary species etc,but to me theres something not right,both penny and the mosses today seemed extremely quiet for the time of year

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Saturday 2nd of June 2012 10:13:08 PM

Same happened to my Great Tits last year (or was it the year before ??), chicks hatched just as a cool wet spell hit the area and my humble opinion was that the nest failed due to lack of available food.

I was a little sad but the Great Tit parents were much more pragmatic and got on with a second brood almost immediately.

Strange thing: Cleared the 2 dead chicks out of the box last Sunday and got rid of the nest, cleaning the box to get rid of any parasites etc. Haven't seen the female since, however noticed one going in this evening (can't say if it's the same female), switched on the tv and it appears she's been bringing fresh nesting material in. Also i've spoken to 4/5 people this week who have all had Blue Tit nests fail during the early part of May.

It is so cosy inside nest boxes I doubt the cold has little if any effect. If not a food issue the chicks could could have been doomed from hatching? Maybe a genetic issue? Our pair of Blue Tits started laying in there normal box then for some unknown reason moved to another, abandoning 3 eggs and laying 2 more in the new box but with only 1 surviving. The wonder of nature.

Cheers
Jason

Not sure that food availability was the problem the adults were quite busy bringing in food all day, even as we speak i've still got the unfortunate sight of them coming in the box with food even though there's nothing to give it to.

Gary

Bad news indeed Gary, may I suggest you remove the dead chick from the box this will in turn make it available for any birds wishing to roost in the box.
I had lower than normal broods in the garden boxes but at Woolston NR where I ring the boxes are having a better year than last? Not sure why this is but I don't think it is necessarily down to the cold/wet spring, quite possibly just something as simple as food availability.

Cheers
Jason

Bad news today, the last blue tit chick in our box has succumbed to the cold/wet weather. They lasted for about 10 days but this morning the female was still brooding the chick and the male was bringing in food, however the chick was too weak to eat. Just got back in and the adults have covered the nest cup with other material and the only thing now moving is a blue bottle laying it's eggs on a dead chick. A similar thing happened to a relatives blue tits of which the chicks only lasted for 2/3 days.
This cold spring could have a detrimental effect on the tit population. We usually regard cold winters as having an effect on the population not spring time.