Since last Wednesday our female blue tit has slept-over in our camera Nestbox – except for last night when she seems to have had a night out! We were a little worried when there were no signs of her working at her nest last night and she only briefly looked in and left.
Good news – tonight she is back and the nest is much thicker now. We checked in on her, with the aid of a torch, at 10.22pm when she was seen tucked in for the night, shown below.
Night night, video 0:30 with background music, try 480p quality.
Saturday evening I recorded her tucking her head completely in, shown above. It was around 8.40pm and the box was really quite dark so I have altered the contrast and brightness so she can be seen a little clearer. She puffs her feathers up prior to this stage and doesn’t move much after. The first few nights she went into the corners but it has varied although tonight she has been heard moving around – perhaps she can’t get comfortable. Maybe its time she started laying eggs!
No eggs yet? My dad had a blue tit nesting last year. The first time there were 9 babies and the second time 6. Not bad eh? Can’t wait to see how many you’ll be having.
Is it difficult to capture it all on camera? How do you go about setting everything up?
No eggs yet! Maybe tomorrow morning?
She has been busy today and there is ‘soft stuff’ in the middle now which she has taken from my nest egg which I am delighted at.
Wow – your Dad did do well! Last year our terrace nestbox had five young. They were seen at the feeders together after leaving the nest. I have wondered if our female was one of them as she is tiny!
Our only difficulty in capture is when there is no natural daylight. The camera shows in colour with good light and black white when there it is dull. When it is dark we cannot see inside at all – except by torchlight!
We put it up on a house wall that would get good natural light but not full sun. We drilled through the house wall and connected it to the PC. I open the program when the PC is on and can see the action in the corner of my screen or I can open it to full screen. It is great to watch live.
We bought our Nestbox from CamNest. We received a box ready to use with wiring etc (see post Great Excitement in Feb). We were able to watch pictures on our TV. We chose our own software to view on PC and I record and take still pics from that. I also grab frames from the video clips.
Thanks for the explanation Shirl. I can imagine how exciting it is to watch it all live! I enjoy watching it all on your blog so thanks for sharing!
Hi Shirl & Yolanda … I have a nestbox with breeding bluetits this is our second family now, last year we had 10 chicks, 1 died in the nest the 6 others died after fledging 4 survived, 1 which never left lol we think he’s this families daddy.At the moment we have 11 eggs and mum doesn’t leave them for long so they never get covered up now. Have you noticed any change in the appearance of the nest shirl? as mine always covered the eggs when she left them untill now as there are too many to cover and as I said she’s never away long. I also have a cam in the box it’s a infra red colour cam they are really good for nighttime but look black and white we will have to sort that out for next year don’t want to mess with it now as she’s spending alot of time in there.I hope you see some eggs soon.I will send you some pics of mine when I put them on pc.
Hi Bettyboo,
Thanks for your comment – it has been very well timed. This morning I do believe we finally have our first egg!
It is very interesting to hear of your Nestbox and its success. You must have plants and trees that provide food for the young too. I can’t believe such a small bird can lay 11 eggs! Fingers crossed that they will all survive. Were they laid one per day?
Your infra red camera will still allow a good view of activity at night – yes best to leave well alone for the moment. Is there much activity during the evening? Our female is all tucked in quite early now – not long after 8pm.
Hi Shirl glad to hear you have an egg, but you may even have more and they are covered.
I don’t have a garden we have a yard, we have bought small trees and plants this year to help them, we also have 2 water fountains so they can drink or bath and we live near a park, we are helpin them this year with meal worms dried and live when the eggs hatch save mum and dad some trips lol
Our mum was always tucked up for 7.00pm 7.30pm now shes never away long. Yes she laid one aday it’s really exciting when you see the egg isn’t it, her first egg was laid the 20th April … It always amazes me how something so small can lay all those eggs and the workload they do, I never tire of watcing them. The cam shots at night are really good but other than turn her eggs every so often there isn’t much to see.
good luck with your nest and I’ll keep you posted on ours :o)