Day 18 after hatching. At 6am, the video showed a large pale beak intruding into the nest – don’t know what, but it was some large bird after the babies. The beak couldn't open very much because it was restricted by the size of the small hole and couldn't reach the babies cowering at the back of the box, so after a short time the bird must have flown away and the babies fortunately escaped.
Weather hot and sunny with no wind. First baby fledged at 8am of its own accord. The second left a bit more accidentally at 8.15am because I startled it at the nest hole while I was scaring off a visiting cat. Third baby left at 2pm, the fourth and fifth left at 3pm. The sixth at 3.30pm. The adult female was feeding them in the hedge around the garden at the same time as checking the babies still in the box. One of the babies actually landed on Colin's blue shirt sleeve and stayed there for a short while. I think I saw the male flying into the garden, maybe after all he had left with the two babies which seemed to disappear and hadn't just abandoned his brood or been killed. There are other suggestions: one is that the young males gang up on the adult male after he is aggressive to them as they develop in the nest and that the male might be seen off by them; another is that the males leaves to make the babies that bit more hungry and to encourage them to fledge.
The last fledgling had a damaged or misshapen right foot and couldn't perch properly so kept on fluttering down to ground level. The adult female was still trying to feed it there and was in danger herself from the neighbourhood's cats. We picked up the baby and tried putting it higher in the trees, the female did feed him but he kept fluttering down. Real dilemma about what to do and we phoned St. Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital near Thame, they said to bring it over and they would check it over and hopefully raise it with their orphan bluetits. They wouldn't be able to tell us the outcome but they would release the baby as soon as possible in that area. We reckoned the baby would die if we left it and that the mother would be in danger too, so we decided to take it to Thame. We left at about 6pm and fed it during the journey with mealworms taking care to remove the heads of the mealworms as the female had done. Apart from its foot it seemed very bright and active. Very hard to reconcile the larger than life black and white images we'd been watching on the TV for the past few weeks with this tiny bird. The colouring was very different to the adults, much more grey and yellow and with bright red skin showing through where the feathers parted and with a very short tail. Coming home in the dark that evening it was a very poignant moment seeing the empty box on the television screen and turning the camera off.
Day 17 after hatching. 6 gapes visible. Much quieter than yesterday and stayed in the nest bowl. Only went up to the hole at 12 noon. Put out more mealworms. No downy tufts on their heads any more. Lots of wing flapping. Quite windy weather.
Day 16 after hatching. 6 gapes visible. Babies queuing up to leave climbing on top of each other. They spend most of their time by the nest hole being fed from outside the hole by the female. Grey aphids on the honeysuckle being taken to them. Babies much quieter in the afternoon. White cat's paw into the box at 7.30pm, it grabbed one baby by a wing and its legs flailed wildly - I screamed at the cat from the window and it jumped down. All the babies looked dead but fortunately they were only shocked and very frightened, when the female arrived with food a few minutes later they all rallied.
Day 15 after hatching. 6 gapes visible. Babies looking very much like blue tits (or russian dolls). 3 have dark crowns and 3 have pale crowns. First wing shivering seen. Babies very upright. Stopped putting out mealworms and faeces became soft again. Babies came out of the nest bowl to feed.
Day 14 after hatching. 6 gapes visible. 2 eggs very visible. Very cold morning. Continued feeding mealworms with crushed peanuts and black sunflower seeds. Tails much longer. Faeces much drier.
Day 13 after hatching. 7 gapes visible. Cold morning. Babies very sleepy. Male adult around in the morning but NOT in the afternoon. Female still feeding them. Worried if she could cope so put out mealworms into a container nearby.
Day 12 after hatching. 8 gapes visible. Pale collar very visible. Faint eyebrow tufts look like Dennis Healy. Babies get out of the nest bowl to take food from the parents but get back into the nest bowl between feeds. Very aggressive, 3 in particular. Female NOT in the box overnight.
Day 11 after hatching. 8 gapes visible. Overnight female still there and heads of the babies are poking out from under her. Dark patch on top of their heads getting bigger. Eyes clearly open. Lots of wing stretching. Pale collar at the backs of their necks beginning to show. Female still in the box overnight from 9pm until 5am.
Day 10 after hatching. 8 gapes visible. Babies preening a lot. Almost getting out of the nest bowl. Ridge of feather quills noticeable down their backs. Most of their eyes are open. Look like little dinosaurs. Lots of wing flapping.
Day 9 after hatching. 8 gapes visible. Beaks more pointed. Several babies now preening. Still blind but eyes are beginning to open. Female did not sit on them during the day. Female feeds them from the right hand side of the box and the male from the left hand side - must be to avoid colliding with each other.Babies flapping wings. House martins beginning to collect mud. Thunder and heavy rain.
Day 8 after hatching. 8 gapes visible. Eyes beginning to open. 6 gapes stronger than the other two. Wings stick out of the nest bowl sometimes. One baby started preening itself. Heard swifts screeching. One long caterpillar was put into two gapes, one each end! Thunder storm.
Day 7 after hatching. 8 gapes visible. Babies not fitting very well under the female any more. Parents flying to trees for food, same direction from the nest box as each other but rotating each time until they make a full circle. Very active female at the bottom of the nest. Quills visible on the wings. Explosion of gapes very wide in the evening.
Day 6 after hatching. 8 gapes visible. Down quite dark stripe down the backbone. Female straddles them with her legs. Babies are very active.
Day 5 after hatching. 7 gapes visible. Downy eyebrows and down on their wings wafts around as they breathe. Backbone visible. Female still sits on them.
Day 4 after hatching. 8 gapes visible. Female sitting on them frequently. Sunny.
Day 3 after hatching. Female still eating the small fecal sacks and removing larger ones. The sacks seem to appear from the baby they've just fed. Male had difficulty getting a big lump of food into one of the gapes - tried pulling it out but it wouldn't come. One of the gapes looks smaller than the rest. Very heavy showers and sunshine.
Day 2 after hatching. Difficult to count gapes 7 or 8? No more eggs visible, female still does a lot of upending - to get the buried babies up to the top maybe (or to bury the dead perhaps?) Wet most of the day.
Day 1 after hatching. 7am male arriving with food. Gives caterpillar to female who moves off the young and feeds two of the gapes. Female seems to eat the fecal sacks. All hatched. Sunny. Female still sits on them in the box overnight. She breathes very quickly, about 110 breaths/minute.
On day 12 of incubation, 7 chicks hatched during the day. By 7.30pm 3 or 4 eggs were still unhatched. Female still sitting on them and still turning them.
Incubation (day 8). Rain very heavy at times.
Incubation (day 7). 11 eggs visible, female still incubating. Heavy shower in the afternoon.
Incubation (day 6). Hot and sunny.
Incubation (day 5). Hot and sunny.
12 eggs visible at 8am, could be a total of 15 if one each day? Female arrived eating what looked like bread. Started incubating the eggs during the day.
10 eggs visible, maybe total of 14? Female arrived in box at 7pm very wet. Rained all day.
10 eggs visible, could be 3 more hidden. First rain since March - drissled all day.
11 eggs for definite and 1 maybe hidden.
10 eggs for definite and 1 maybe hidden.
9 eggs for definite and maybe 1 hidden.
Warmer and 9 eggs very visible.
Extremely cold all day, eggs covered well. Female in box by 6.30pm.
Very cold, eggs well covered during the day.
7.30pm female in box asleep.
5.45am female awake, getting light during the dawn chorus. 6.10am female leaves box leaving the eggs exposed. By 7.45am the eggs covered over again. By 7.15pm the female back in the box asleep.
Female stayed in box overnight. By 6.45am female had left box and 3 eggs clearly visible. At 7.40am female back on the eggs for about 15 minutes pushing them pointed end down into the lining.
Dark feathers brought into the nest - not as a lining but all over - female pecked at it. Only 1 egg visible at 8.30am but a second one maybe covered over. By 6.30pm 2 eggs visible. Female in box to sleep by 7pm.
1 egg laid by 10am. Saw a blue tit near the nest during the day.
Dug up the lawn near the nest box, the adult male was doing his "go away" call.
Nest looks like a soft duvet. Female now spends several minutes at a time rearranging the lining. The wool seems to get caught in the hole on the way into the box and she gradually sorts it out. Male goes in first and looks around, then female comes in and he leaves immediately. Female removes some nest material.
Lots more wool brought in from the wool supply we'd put in a feeder on the tree opposite the box. Definitely the nest lining stage.
Thought an egg was laid but it was a feather which was soon rearranged by the female.
Male and female both in the box at 10am. Lots of open beak pecking at each other's beaks. Nest cup looking very deep. Female brought in more material. Feverish nest building activity all day by the female.
Prolonged "nesting" behaviour by the female getting the nest right.
Visits the hole several times in a 5 minute period. Female and male both visit briefly. The male goes into the box first then the female and he then flies away immediately. The male has a much wider pale band around his head than the female and has a bigger pale patch at the nape of his neck.
The female has a ring on her left leg and a narrow pale band around her head. Female burrowing deep in the wool, lined the nest cup by the back wall of the box and then removed bits of material - maybe too sharp? not quite right anyway!
Fitted camera in the lid of the nestbox. Moss and wool already there. A ringed bird (which we later discover to be the female) seen tapping around the inside of the hole. Frequently looked up at the camera in the roof. This could be the same ringed bird that also used the box last year in 1996. The only bird ringing near here was done by Bill Campbell, the famous naturalist and writer for the Guardian who lived nearby and died in 1994. This would mean that this female is at least 3 years old.