This is the first time
this season that I have seen the male and female together in the birdbox. And
it is the first time anyway that I have seen the female spending several
minutes inside.
30 January, 9;23am. Female investigates the birdbox
P.s. camera is not
properly positioned – I will correct this shortly.
Lots of activity around
the birdbox today. The male bird is flying in and out all the time. Later this
afternoon he was together with a female. While she didn’t yet follow him into
the birdbox, she did investigate it from the outside and peeked inside a few
times. I hope she likes what
she sees…
Female peeking inside
while the male is already inside the box
Perhaps triggered by
an 8 degrees rise in temperature and the fact that the recent snow has
disappeared, some birds are now behaving as if the spring has already arrived.
Today I saw a male blue tit chasing a female near the birdbox. He was showing all the typical
spring behaviour like making himself look big, fanning his tail and putting his
crest up. He showed a lot of interest in the birdbox, going in and out, jumping around in the tree, landing
on the roof, flying around it etc. It appears he was really investigating it as a
potential nest site and not just looking for food.
This male blue tit appears to be seriously interested in the birdbox.
Fortunately this bird is easy to recognise by the black stripe on his chest that is much broader than usual, so I will recognise it when it keeps coming back.
The New Year has
started and I’ve started to monitor the birdbox again. Birds are occasionally peeking
inside the box but unlike last year I have no evidence of birds roosting in the
box at night.
Last week I
recorded for the first time a nuthatch peeking inside the box. In the video
below you can see him checking the box twice and both times only a second later a blue tit followed him.
Nuthatch and blue tit checking the box, 9 January 2013, 10:02am
