No happy end

The night following the attacks the female did not spend the night on the nest as usual, but the morning after she did return for four brief periods and spend a few minutes incubating the eggs. However, she remained restless and could be seen in the bushes near the birdbox, calling much of the time. I had never seen her behave that way before.

Observing this behaviour, It appeared to me that perhaps the male was the first to abandon the nest and since the female relies on him for raising the kids later on she had to abandon it too. So after the female left the nest for the fourth time that morning, she never came back into the birdbox.

In the following days I have seen the couple feeding in the trees near the birdbox and the female then went to the birdbox and peeked through the entrance (but didn’t enter). I have not seen the male showing any interest in the birdbox anymore, whereas before he was always checking it. Around the same period I still saw the female begging the male for food (and getting it) so the couple had definitely not broken up.

I haven’t seen the couple recently though I occasionally see the male singing in the trees. But since there are so many leaves on the trees now it has become very difficult to keep track of the birds.

So what actions did I take to prevent further cat attacks? I got a good tip from somebody on the internet. She successfully prevented cats from climbing a tree by mounting a surgical dog collar around the tree trunk. Because this could be done without disturbing the nest I mounted this immediately (the largest size I could get, obviously):

Anti-cat shield will hopefully prevent cats from reaching the birdbox

Later I also mounted anti-cat spikes on the roof.

Should a cat still be able to reach the birdbox, it will be difficult for him to sit on the roof and try to reach through the entrance like I saw him doing on that fateful day.

Unfortunately, none of this changes the fate of the current nest but at least I’ll be better prepared for a new nest hopefully next year.

NEST ABANDONED?

Last night, the birds did not return to the nest. I think that the stress of the attacks by a woodpecker and especially the cat was too great and they probably perceive the birdbox as unsafe now.

After the attacks, the female did enter the box a few times and spend a short time on the nest, but she seemed restless and left the box again shortly after. Most important, she did not spend the night on the nest.

This morning I see them around the box again. The female is often hanging in the opening but she does not return to the nest. But perhaps it’s now too late anyway? Will the eggs be dead by now? Can you interrupt incubation for such a long period once it has started?

Attacks from a woodpecker and a cat!

Late this morning there were two attacks on the birdbox: one by a great spotted woodpecker and one by a cat.

The camera was not recording when the woodpecker attack started so the first part is missing in the video. The Female was on the nest and then a woodpecker appears at the entrance. She starts attacking it and manages to fly out of the box.

On the video you can only see a short part of the attack and the blue tit flying out. After that you can’t see a thing but you can hear the woodpecker pecking around the opening of the box. Fortunately there is a metal plate so no chance for her (it was a female) to get in.

Attack by a great spotted woodpecker, 7 May 2012 11:35am

Then just 12 minutes later there was an attack by a cat. The cat had climbed into the tree and was sitting on the roof of the box, putting his leg through the opening. At that time there was no bird in the box but the male and the female blue tit were both close by and sounding the alarm.

Cat "fishing" through the opening, 7 May 2012 11:47am

The box is designed such that a cat can never put his leg in far enough to actually grab a bird, but do the birds know this? The female bird seemed really upset and even when I write this more than two hours later I still see her checking the box all the time, sometimes going inside, but she hasn’t continued incubating so far….

Edit: around 2:40pm (about 3 hours after the attacks) she finally appears relaxed again and is back on the nest.

Final egg count: nine

No new eggs in the last two days, so nine is the final count. Our hope for babies are these beautiful pink eggs:

The female is now incubating the eggs most of the time but she still leaves the nest for short periods

Returning to the nest and leaving again, 7 May 2012 7:10-7:30am

Eggs are turned regularly and sometimes the male brings her food, like this spider

Turning the eggs and feeding, 7 May 2012 7:50am

Egg #9

One more egg this morning makes a total of nine eggs! This is exactly the average for UK blue tits.

I also captured another video of the male feeding the female on the nest.

Male feeding female on the nest, 5 May 2012 7:36am

Male feeding the female on the nest!

Incubating the eggs has started now so the female stays on the nest most of the time. This morning I witnessed for the first time how she is calling the male and after some time he arrives with her breakfast: a juicy caterpillar!

Male feeding caterpillar to female on the nest, 4 May 2012 6:29am

But later in the morning she was away from the nest for about an hour and she brought in extra feathers for the nest.

More feathers for the nest, 4 May 2012 8:20am

Egg #8, incubation has started

Egg #8 was laid early this morning (before 5:45). This could be the last egg because incubation appears to have started.

Egg #7 and interesting behaviour

This morning (before 5:45am) we got egg number 7

Later in the morning I observed some interesting behavior: the female sits on the nest, spreads her wings and opens her beak like she is screaming, but no sound comes out. It appears to be some display towards the male who is nearby (probably in the entrance of the box). You can hear HIM calling.

Interesting behaviour, 3 May 2012 6:45am

I have seen similar kind of behaviour before from the female, but I have no clue what it means…

Egg #6

Egg number 6 was laid this morning before 5:45am. I was too late to see it happen.

In the video below you can see the female bird returning to the nest in the early evening and going for a short sleep. She becomes a little fluffy ball.

Taking a rest around 7:30-8:00pm

However, after a while she woke up and left the nest (and the box again). She repeated this a few times until finally going to sleep around sunset.

Egg #5

Egg #5 was laid this morning at 5:51am!

The nest is still being improved although about half of the eggs are already there. New material is still brought in several times per day.

Bringing in nest material, 1 May 2012 8:28am