Lucky you Gary - after two months of roosting overnight in one of my boxes (and being watched on camera by me) my little Blue Tit didn't return last night. I was hoping that it might build a nest there so I could stream it live, but it's now looking unlikely.
The female Blue Tit that nested in our box last year started roosting in the box for a couple of weeks prior to nest building. This year we have a single bird that comes to the box most mornings, spends a few minutes pecking round the hole from the inside then doesn't go near the box for the rest of the day.
Still no signs of nesting, but the bird is roosting overnight as regularly as clockwork. Anyone know if birds do or don't tend to nest where they roost? My bird might be out looking for alternative accomodation during the day.
Your still more than a month away from when Blue tits will start thinking about laying eggs,the same birds that roost in your box will most likely use it for nesting
Still no signs of nesting, but the bird is roosting overnight as regularly as clockwork. Anyone know if birds do or don't tend to nest where they roost? My bird might be out looking for alternative accomodation during the day.
Last week I switched on my NestCam for the first time this year and was pleased to find a Blue Tit using it to roost overnight. The bird normally comes in between 5 and 6pm each night (subject to light levels and weather) and leaves around 6:30am to 7:00am each morning. Overnight it fluffs up to almost twice it's size and sticks its head under a wing making it very difficult to make our where everything is. Occasionally it will have a bit of a flutter when you can see a bit more detail.
The bird is there now (6pm Sunday 24 Feb) for anyone who wants to see it, but at this time of night the colours are monochrome because the camera has switched over to infra-red and much of the detail is lost. A lot more colour and detail can usually be seen in the daylight, but currently the bird isn't there for very long. I just hope that this bird might nest here later in the spring as, after adding a second camera last year, no birds nested in any of my boxes at all. Some of you may remember that in 2011 I had a pair nest with nine eggs and three successful fledglings.
If you want to see the live video stream from my NestCam, just click on my Birding Scrapbook link below where it's currently the latest post, as well as a link being at the top of the right hand list. You do need Java to be installed and running on your computer to see the video, and you may need to accept a connection to my server too. You can download and install Java for free if necessary.
It'll be interesting to see how my old server copes if it gets a lot of hits.
