Diary of our JBS Blue Tits
Monday 8th May: Great excitement this morning as the eggs have hatched and mum is busy feeding her brood.
Friday 4th May: The Web cam is now streaming, just few little tweaks and it should be available for everyone to watch, until then here is a picture of Mum sat from the live feed:
Monday 30th April: Very windy, wet weather all weekend, came in this morning and Mum is sat on the eggs still.
Friday 27th April: Mum was sitting on the eggs when I got into school and Ms Bates had seen her the night before, she spent the day on the eggs: I think this is the start of mum incubating her eggs.
Thursday 26th April: Again didn't see any birds.
Wednesday 25th April: So excited this morning as Ms Bates had seen Mummy Blue Tit in the next the previous evening. The Eco Group checked the web cam at lunchtime and again no birds, I am worried about the eggs:
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| Blue Tits nest is made of moss and lined with soft material such as hair and feathers. They start egg laying between late March and early June and produce one brood. The clutch can be between 7 and 16 eggs that are white with speckles. |
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| Blue Tits like a small next box with a 25mm hole (or larger) and it needs to be placed about 1-5meters above ground. Position the box facing East with a clear flight path to entrance. The reason for facing East is that the box warms up early when the sun rises and is protected from the heat of the midday sun. |
Tuesday 17th April: The wires have been fixed and WOW! It looks as if 8 eggs have been laid.
Half Term: It would appear that the Blue Tits have built a nest, unfortunately we did not have the camera connected to the website so we missed the nest being build. We then noticed that we had lost the image from inside the box and upon further investigation it looks like the camera wire has been chewed through by squirrels.
Day One: 28th March 2012: The nest box and feeder were put up on the large Oak tree so the birds could get used to it..... I didn't expect Blue Tits to start nesting the next day.
Mr Thornton and I fixed the camera into the box with the blue tit still in it.
INFORMATION:
Most birds only start to incubate their
eggs when the whole clutch has been laid. This is to ensure that all chicks will
hatch at the same time, otherwise the bird would have to abandon brooding
unhatched eggs to forage to feed those that she has. Incubation is between 13-14 days. When the female has laid its clutch she will start to sit on the eggs, they start to incubate when they reach the temperature of 37°C . The female will also turn the egg so they are warmed evenly.
The blue tit's feed their young almost exclusively on insect larvae, which are most abundant in early summer. Consequently, they generally put "all their eggs in one basket" by laying a single, large clutch of eggs.
Nestlings fledge after 18-19 days
Key Words:
Nestling - A bird too young to leave its nest:
Clutch - All the eggs that have been laid at one time.
Fledge - The stage when a bird has feathers and is strong enough to fly.
Incubate- To provide heat
Brood - Number of young hatched at the same time.
