DAILY DIARY 2004

Wednesday, 26 May 2004 – All seven fledged about 9.20am!

21 days old. 8am Cooler and overcast this morning, rain expected on Friday. The smallest chick still has a few strands of down at the back of its head and the parents continue to feed it well. It goes up to perch on the hole to be fed but it doesn’t go half in and half out like the others do. In general, there’s lots of preening and wing stretching and flapping going on. Both parents are still busy feeding them – sometimes they come into the box, sometimes they do it from outside the hole. Female still removing droppings to keep the box clean. During the night the chicks moved around a lot and sometimes stretched out in rows covering most of the floor area rather than being huddled together in the much enlarged nestbowl area. 9am Back on Day 11, looking at their plumage and their eyes not being open and comparing them with the same stage in 1997 it looked like their progress was 3 days behind and I suggested they might not fledge until today – we will have to wait and see! Thinking more about the situation 1997 I also wonder if they maybe fledged early on Day 18 – only the female was around feeding them because the male had disappeared on Day 13; they were attacked by a cat on the evening of Day 16; and again by a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the morning of Day 18. .. 9.24am Wow … Just turned round to watch them on the TV while writing this and there are only 4 left in the box and they are flapping like crazy around the hole – wish I’d had the volume up higher I’d have noticed something was happening earlier. Now 2 more have gone, and another, leaving just the littlest one. The parents come to the hole to feed it and it makes a few attempts to go then finally it leaps out and flutters to a nearby branch. Looking out over the garden, a few of them are visible in the trees but really they have just disappeared into the foliage – can hear quite a lot of cheeping though as they keep contact with each other. Fortunately we were recording the box on video during the morning so we’ll be able to watch it again and then get it up on the web site. . . . So this year, unlike 1997, they went all together in a flurry, I wonder if this is more normal. The parents came back to the box to look in the hole a few times just to check if they’d all gone. . . . Just watched the video of them leaving, it was all over in about 8 minutes: after the first one went the next two each went at 30 second intervals. The fourth left after 60 seconds, the fifth after another 10 seconds, the sixth another 30 seconds and the seventh (the smallest one) after 4 more minutes. During all this, they were being extremely noisy and were flying up together at the hole jostling for position, one of them flew up to the top of the box right by the camera. When the seventh one was left on its own, it went very quiet and sat in the bottom of the box. The female came back and removed some droppings from the nestbowl area, amazing even at this late stage. She also came back with food, but even though she reached into the chick’s gape several times, she wouldn’t let it go, as though she was saying you can only have it if you leave the box now. 11.40am Found two chicks sitting cheeping softly in a neighbour’s tree – nice to see them in colour for the first time– they are grey and yellow and haven’t yet developed the blue and yellow plumage of the adults, they also have short tails. Then they flew off – good luck little ones.

Tuesday, 25 May 2004 – Surely ready to fledge now?

20 days old. Sunny again. Really looking ready to go now, the little one still has very thin tufts of down at the back of its head but is stretching its wings and preening like the others. The parents are tending to feed them through the hole and one or two of them are perching on the inside of the hole to feed - one even sat half in and half out. After having been bold like that the chick tends to get down and move to the back of the box if necessary burrowing underneath one of the other chicks. They’re all practicing stationary fast wing flapping. Once the first one goes it could be several hours before the last one leaves, so it would seem likely that they’d start to go in the morning rather than the afternoon. This would give them time to acclimatize themselves to the outside world before they have to find somewhere to roost for the night. The parents will have to carry on feeding them when they have left and they’ll keep together in a loose family group making soft contact calls to keep in touch. . . . On the other hand, maybe they won’t go today, they are all huddled together facing the back of the box(!) and the parents are still coming in to feed them frequently.

Monday, 24 May 2004 – Smallest one isn’t ready yet

19 days old. Sunny again. They didn’t fledge yesterday and they still don’t show signs of fledging today either. Both parents are still coming into the box to feed them frequently – sometimes from the hole but mostly they come into the box. The smallest chick still has tufts of down behind its head and a more conspicuous gape than the others – it looks like a clown’s smile. Two of them are paying a lot of attention to their plumage – they fluff up their feathers, stretch their wings and flap them very fast inside the box to exercise their flying muscles. When the parents are in the box with them it is difficult to tell them apart at a glance because their sizes are so similar now. Maybe the parents determine when they should fledge and do so by not feeding them, they look content in the box still so I think it’ll be another day. In the evening saw one have a practice flight from the back of the nestbox towards the hole. They are all looking very sleek with well preened plumage.

Sunday, 23 May 2004 – Will they fledge today?

18 days old. Sunny again. Will they fledge today? Like yesterday some of the chicks are jumping up onto the hole and looking out when the parents come with food. The parents are also perching on the outside of the hole to feed them as encouragement. Overnight the chicks are drop their faecal sacks on the outside of the nestbowl and when the female arrives in the morning at 5am she flies off with them to keep the nestbox clean. One of the chicks still has tufts of down behind its head. The summer is really advanced - the white climbing rose (Gloire de Dijon) outside the box is in full bloom, which is unusual for May, and the hawthorn blossom is magnificent this year.

Saturday, 22 May 2004 – Lots of wing flapping

17 days old. Yet another sunny day. At least one chick still has two tufts of down looking like ears at the back of its head, so doesn’t look like they will fledge today – though will they wait for all to be ready? Some are practising flapping their wings in the box. Their short tails are well formed and the patterns on their plumage – the dark eye stripe, the pale circle around their dark cap, the pale patch at the back of the neck, and the pale wing bar. In colour they would look grey and yellow, the grey will change to blue as they become adults. Their skin (bright pinky red) still shows through because the coverage of their feathers isn’t very dense. The parents often feed them through the hole in the box but since this only feeds the chicks nearest the hole, they also come into the box to feed the ones at the back. When she’s in the box feeding the ones at the back, she often stretches her wing out over the chicks at the front – maybe to keep them still. Tomorrow they will be 18 days old and the age they fledged in 1997 - will they fledge tomorrow? When they do fledge, they won’t all go at the same time, it will be over several hours. The parents then have to look after the ones out of the box at the same time as the ones in the box. They will keep contact with the fledglings in the garden by making cheeping noises. The chicks are seen pecking at each others beaks.

Friday, 21 May 2004 – Seven doing well

16 days old. Cooler but still sunny. Seven still alive and doing well. Lots of fidgeting during the night.

Thursday, 20 May 2004 – Only 7 now, fledge Sunday?

15 days old.There are still seven alive, so no casualties during the night. Yet another hot sunny day. Lots of wing stretching.

Wednesday, 19 May 2004 – Alone in box overnight

14 days old. Can only see 7 chicks this morning, has one left prematurely? Has one died? Maybe is it just swamped by the others? Having looked through all the pictures of the night, it would seem that one just died during the night because the female wasn’t there to turn them round to stop any being suffocated. All 8 were feeding at 8.30pm on Tuesday and only 7 were feeding from 5am Wednesday. However, photos are only at 1 minute intervals so maybe something happened which wasn’t captured – the body wasn’t in the box either so the parents must have removed it even with the chick being the size they are now. Both parents are feeding them frequently by 6pm. Another hot sunny day again like yesterday. Chicks are doing wing shivering like the female does to the male to get him to feed her, so presumably she’s displaying chick-like behaviour to encourage direct feeding – the chicks will do this after fledging when the parents are feeding them in the outside world. The droppings are very large now and the parents are still removing them directly from the chicks’ backsides. The chicks remind me of something - little griffin dogs - with their tufts of down at the back of their heads which look like ears, their dark eyes and their big mouths.

Tuesday, 18 May 2004 – Wings are feathered now

13 days old. Another sunny day. The chicks are bathed in the early morning sunlight shining into the box. The female spent the night beside them in the nest box but still regularly upended herself in the nestbowl cleaning out debris. By evening, their eyes are definitely all open, you see them glinting above their open beaks. They’re stretching their wings and preening themselves a lot, though as they open their wings there is a lot of bare flesh still visible, if we could see it in colour we’d see that the skin was a bright pinky red.. The pale collar at the back of their neck is becoming very visible. They are making more of a bird-like chirping noise than the previous continuous cheeping. By roosting time in the evening it was clear that the female was going to stay outside the box all night, this will be the first time since she laid her first egg just over a month ago on 14th April; and is a night later than in 1997.

Monday, 17 May 2004 – Beginning to preen

12 days old Beginning to preen their plumage. Eyebrows looking very tufty. By the evening, their wings were noticeably covered in feathers and closed neatly over their backs. When they opened their wings to preen it was clear that there was a lot of bare skin on their backs apart from a ridge of feathers down their spines.

Sunday, 16 May 2004 –Fledging in one more week?

11 days old. Previously in 1997 they fledged at 18 days, that’s just one more week and they have a long way to go. In 1997 their eyes had begun to open on Day 8 and by Day 11 they had more plumage, so it would seem that these are maybe 3 days slower to reach that stage and so maybe they won’t fledge until Wednesday 26th May? Another hot and sunny day, just like yesterday. There have been mealworms accessible nearby for the past few days but they haven’t found them! One chick left alone in the nestbowl, but it definitely gets preferential treatment from the parents who feed it first. The short tail is beginning to be more noticeable and the yellow gape is more obviously attached to a pointed beak. They are so ferocious that the parents sometime don’t come into the box but feed them through the hole. Heard swifts screeching for the first time this year. By the evening their plumage was more distinct –dark cap surrounded by a pale circle – and they were seen to be preening themselves for the first time. At 8.50pm the chicks were all nuzzled down in the nestbowl, looking very dark, soft and fluffy, wondered if the female was going to leave them alone in the box overnight. She didn’t though, she returned and the chicks erupted into a frenzy instantly. Maybe they will fledge next Sunday after all.

Saturday, 15 May 2004 – Out of the Nestbowl

10 days old. 8am At the top edge of the box, one of the chicks seems to be getting swamped by the others and losing out on receiving food. The female spends a lot of time burrowing upside down in the nestbowl, sometimes all you can see is her tail – this shows how deep it is – she might be trying to push up the chicks that are being stepped on by the others and also cleaning up. The chicks are still upending themselves and presenting their droppings to her directly and she flies away with them in her beak. One of them moved out of the nestbowl to do this - its legs were clearly visible – but it got back into the nestbowl again afterwards. When the parents arrive in the box, the chicks make more of a continuous singing noise now – like a kettle just before it boils. Their bodies are getting darker as the down grows but their mouths are very bright. When the mouth is shut the gape is a straight line, when open it’s a huge circle. When they’re waiting for food they settle down and all the straight lines are in parallel as they face the opening together, but when they hear a parent arrive, they frantically erupt in an explosion of movement like a speeded up film of a flower opening and waving around.

10am Four of them have found their way out of the nestbowl and are waiting right under the hole into the box. When the parents arrive with food the whole box erupts with writhing chicks, their wings are really very powerful and their necks very long! The parents cling onto the hole and feed them from above, however they mostly go to the back of the box and feed the four that haven’t yet ventured forth – after all these must be the weaker ones. 6pm Only two left in the nestbowl, the chicks can use their legs to walk around the box at will. 8.30pm The female is trying to get them back into the nestbowl ready to settle down for the night, surprisingly they do go back. I think the bolder ones are showing signs of their eyes beginning to open.

Friday, 14 May 2004 – Looking ferocious

9 days old. Wow are they looking ferocious now, the nest bowl is much enlarged by all their wild energetic movements. Their wings are covered well with down and the beginnings of feathers and are very noticeable. Their eyes are still closed and the black stripe down their spines is still visible, so the coverage of down on their backs is really still minimal.

They almost clamber out of the nestbowl when they hear the parents coming to feed them - using their wings like arms - this is why the nestbowl has become so much bigger. The nestbowl must be very deep to stop them managing to get out of it, apparently if they do so, the parents don’t feed them. The chicks, still blind, line up in rows facing the light just waiting for the parents to return.

Then when they do, they each stretch forward competitively - their long necks with huge open mouths at the end of them – each trying to make the parent give them the food. Only one or two chicks receive any food at any one visit, so the parents must be able to recognize them and distribute the food fairly, however, the chicks swap places all the time. Overnight, the female spends a lot of time at the side of the nestbowl instead of on top of it; no doubt the chicks are now moving about too much underneath her and making her too uncomfortable. She has a very disturbed night and keeps going back to the nestbowl and upending herself amongst the chicks to reach the bottom – presumably to keep the nest clean.

Thursday, 13 May 2004 – Doubled in size

8 days old. Seem to have doubled in size since hatching. Their mouths are so big. Feather quills beginning to show on their wings.

Wednesday, 12 May 2004 – Down getting thicker

7 days old. Definitely only 8 mouths visible, the stripe of down on their backs is getting thicker and more showing on the tops of their heads. Parents now giving them quite large caterpillars. Sometimes it’s too big for them to swallow, but fortunately, on the next visit, the parent sees the chick hasn’t managed to swallow it, takes it out, breaks it up a bit and tries again.

Tuesday, 11 May 2004 – Only eight alive now

6 days old. Not at home much today to observe the birds, but can only count a maximum 8 mouths now. Their bodies and mouths are getting noticeably bigger. At the beginning of the night the night at 9.15pm the female is settled down in the box at the side of the nestbowl rather than straddling them – they are so active it must be uncomfortable sitting over them all night.

Monday, 10 May 2004 – Looking fluffy

5 days old. Chicks get bigger as each day passes, and the diameter of the gape gets larger. They also look a bit darker each day as down begins to grow on their bodies, when they hatch they just have some tufts of down above their eyes, then yesterday a dark stripe down their spine began to show. In the evening, it is hard to count nine gapes still so one of them is possibly a bit weaker than the rest. They are beginning to look very fluffy. Female is having a hard time making them go underneath her, their heads keep popping out the sides with their mouths open wide.

Sunday, 9 May 2004 – Nine mouths after all

4 days old. Overcast. Very hard to count all the gapes because they all wriggle around so much and the parent’s body obscures a clear view when feeding them, but really . . . . it looks like there are 9 mouths(!) which would mean that what had looked like a dead chick overnight on the 5/6 May must have been a fragment of shell! Yesterday I thought I counted 9 but I thought I’d got it wrong – it’s a bit like counting the stars in the Pleiades! Turned into a warm sunny day. Parents finding food on the stonework by the kitchen window – glad I hadn’t cleaned all the cobwebs and insects away because it’s turned out to be a useful food source.

At least two of the chicks refuse to stay underneath her when she’s straddling them and still call for more food. Chicks beginning to develop a dark stripe down the center of their backs, this must be a line of down. 8.45pm it is beginning to get dark and she’s just returned to the box. Previously, she’s been settling down for the night at about 7.30pm, so they are feeding much later tonight.

Saturday, 8 May 2004 – Feeding strongly

3 days old. Steady rain most of the day. Parents concentrate on finding food in one area at a time, during the afternoon they spent 20 minutes searching for food around the eaves by the back door, e.g. chrysalis from amongst the cobwebs; they hovered and even landed on the vertical stonework to peck at the debris to find food. Generally, the female usually comes back quickly with food and the male takes longer. This could be that she concentrates on nearby sources of food so that she isn’t away for too long and he travels that bit further to find larger and more nutritious food - the pay-off between time and nutritional value. Can definitely tell the male from the female visually now, the male has a brighter pale area at the back of his neck, while the female’s is duller and has not such an even edge. The chicks are feeding very strongly and when she is sitting over them keeping them warm, you can still hear them cheeping away, one even popped his head up from under her and craned around for any food on offer. She must be straddling them rather than actually sitting on them. By evening I thought I saw 9 mouths but they writhe around so much it’s difficult to count them accurately (this was confirmed by the still photograph).

Friday, 7 May 2004 – Last one has hatched

2 days old. All 7 have survived the night. Warm sunny day. All feeding strongly, then surprise, surprise, at 4.30pm I noticed there were 8 gapes - the last one must have hatched! Very hard counting them but they are only just beginning to open their mouths in unison and that’s the only time you can really count them. They wriggle around a lot when they’re not being fed, pushing themselves around the nestbowl with their legs and clambering all over each other. Opening their mouths expectantly even if the parent hasn’t arrived with food.

Thursday, 6 May 2004 –More hatched overnight

1 day old. 1.28am outside the nestbowl, two things were visible, the remnants of a shell (6th egg to have hatched) and possibly 1 dead chick (but this turns out to be another fragment of egg shell). 3.52am one more shell visible outside the nestbowl (7th egg to have hatched). 6.30am Parents feeding the chicks, 1 or 2 unhatched eggs still visible. Both shells and dead body from outside the nestbowl have been removed. From what we saw in 2001, we know that the female can pick up a dead body in her mouth and fly off with it. 9.00am Only 1 unhatched egg visible so the 8th egg must have hatched – however it is impossible to count gapes because they don’t open them all at the same time yet. Female eats the faecal sack from the baby she has just fed – like eating the egg shell she gets nutrients from the baby’s waste. Parents feeding the chicks every minute or so.

1.00pm Female still spends time sitting on them to keep them and the unhatched egg warm. Male makes loud clicking noises when he’s in the box feeding them as though to alert them and make them open their mouths. The female sometimes makes a single click to alert them; when she’s sitting on them and hears the male outside the box she makes fast chirping noises. She still does wing shivering when they are both in the box, maybe to stimulate him to go out and get more food? When the chicks open their mouths, the parents seem to either share the food out between 2 or 3 mouths or else they try several before letting go, maybe looking at the alertness of the reaction – sometimes you can see the parent rapidly nibbling at the food to divide it up in their own beak first. 6.30pm Definitely 7 gapes showing when being fed, all looking stronger and more likely to all ask for food; they are making little cheeping sounds all the time. It’s been a warm day, mostly sunny but with some rain. The female has been feeding them more than the male, she’s also been sitting on them so she has been extremely busy. When she leaves for food she comes back in less than a minute, sometimes only 30 seconds.

Wednesday, 5 May 2004 – First eggs hatched

Incubation Day 14 (Hatching Day. Wow, 2.25pm just found that one egg has hatched and the chick is sprawling over the other eggs – the gape is very conspicuous, female being very attentive and goes out to get food – where’s the male? Female comes back and still sits on the clutch.

3.40pm, two more hatched in the last 20 minutes, female removes the half shell from the chick and flies off with it. Male comes into the box while the female is out and feeds them, he looked up at the camera suspiciously. Female came in and parked at the back on the left of the nestbowl and did wing shivering to the male who then feeds her and she passes it onto the chicks. Male flies off and female resumes sitting on them. Babies are making cheeping sounds. 4.05pm female sitting on them burrows down underneath herself and emerges with half a shell, this must be the 4th one hatched. Just drops it outside the box. Babies have big bulging dark bumps where their eyes are, but of course at this stage their lids are shut. They have long tufts of down on their foreheads above each eye. They sprawl on the unhatched eggs.

Male and female both being active bringing food in, sometimes as frequently as every 30 seconds. If male comes back and female isn’t there, he seems to hang about waiting for her and prefers to give it to the female first rather than feeding them directly. 6.00pm see the female removing half a shell from underneath her, so this must be the 5th one hatched, she takes the shell to the side of the nestbowl and eats some residue within the shell and then within about 2 minutes she has eaten the whole shell, then she goes back to sit on the babies.

Very hard to distinguish the babies in black & white, the bright white eggs disappear and the babies just look the same as the nest material – that is until they move! The mouth is an open circle which opens expectantly – this yellow gape is designed to stimulate the parents to feed them. The body and head are almost the same size joined by a long neck, their wings look like flailing little arms, it is very difficult to count bodies because a body and a head looks the same - until the mouth opens!

Tuesday, 4 May 2004

Incubation Day 13. No they didn’t hatch. Torrential rain in the morning, sunshine in the afternoon. At times, the female called the male to come into the box to feed her, but she still mostly went out to feed. Male making alarm calls whenever anyone went near the box. Fluffed up as though she was settled for the night as early as 6.15pm but she still briefly left the box at 7.50pm. Lots of activity during the night still turning the eggs regularly. Full moon tonight and a total lunar eclipse, but it was raining at the time so we didn’t see it.

Monday, 3 May 2004

Incubation Day 12. Heavy rain in the morning, sunny afternoon, cool evening. Male active near the box, female seen on the rose outside the box wing shivering in front of him to get him to feed her. Female in and out all day, on her return she always turns the eggs. Tomorrow is Day 13, which is the day they hatched in previous years, so maybe they will hatch tomorrow.

Sunday, 2 May 2004

Incubation Day 11. Dry, warm and overcast. House Martins have arrived and have started collecting mud from the puddles to repair their nests.

Saturday, 1 May 2004

Incubation Day 10. Heavy rain.

Friday, 30 April 2004

Incubation Day 9. Grey, overcast, steady rain.

Thursday, 29 April 2004

Incubation Day 8

Wednesday, 28 April 2004

Incubation Day 7. Saw the male coming into the box to feed the female, we haven’t seen this happen very much this year, she normally goes out to feed. Glad to see the male is still around.

Tuesday, 27 April 2004

Incubation Day 6. Cold overcast day.

Monday, 26 April 2004

Incubation Day 5. Warm sunny day.

Sunday, 25 April 2004

Incubation Day 4

Saturday, 24 April 2004

Incubation Day 3. Hot and sunny. Heard a cuckoo for the first time this year.

Friday, 23 April 2004

Incubation Day 2

Thursday, 22 April 2004 – Ninth egg laid & incubation begins

Incubation Day 1. 9 eggs. Eggs covered over again but female returns to the box during the day and starts incubating them.

Wednesday, 21 April 2004

8 eggs. Eggs covered over in the morning and left all day until female returns to the box at 7.15pm for the night.

Tuesday, 20 April 2004

7 eggs

Monday, 19 April 2004

6 eggs

Sunday, 18 April 2004

9.00am There are 5 eggs visible in the nest bowl, female out of the box, a bird enters the box briefly at 9.15pm (M looking for F?). Since eggs are laid in the morning, it looks like first egg would have been laid on Wednesday 14 April. Mating is one of the reasons for males to sing at dawn, the male stakes out his nest site and waits for the female to emerge after she has laid that day’s egg. then they mate to fertilise the next day’s egg.

Saturday, 17 April 2004

Presumably fourth egg laid.

Switched camera on again in evening and found female sitting in nestbowl which has been formed in the back corner – previously nestbowls have been centred on the back wall, but the corner is marginally further from the hole and therefore safer from predators. She moves around quite a lot and we can tell there are eggs there but can’t tell how many.

Friday, 16 April 2004

Presumably third egg laid.

7.15pm While I was in the garden, female started making alarm calls in nearby hedge and then entered the box for the night. Sunset . The week has been warm and sunny with rain at night.

Thursday, 15 April 2004

Presumably second egg laid.

Wednesday, 14 April 2004 – First egg laid

Presumably first egg laid. In 1997, the last time the box was used successfully, the first egg was laid on 13 April, 11 eggs were laid in total that year.

Sunday, 28 March 2004

Have seen a pair of blue tits showing interest in the nest box. It hasn’t been used since 2001 when the whole brood died within two days of hatching on 10 May, presumably due to lack of food. We have just turned the camera on and found quite a lot of moss in the box. There was much activity during the morning with material being brought in AND stuff being taken out again. One long blade of coarse grass got taken in and out umpteen times. In the box, the bird energetically pushes its head down into the material almost upending itself , it opens its wings and uses its whole body to make a nest bowl at the back of the box - in doing this it pushes the material towards the hole and exposes the wood at the back of the box. It taps the bottom of the box vigorously with its beak. Frequently it jumps out of the box into the vegetation immediately outside and then comes in again to do more adjustments. Can’t tell if we’re seeing one or two birds doing this yet. The one I’m watching has a narrow white band at the back of its neck and an evenly coloured crown.