Bird Box disaster

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

For years we've had bird boxes.

A few years ago we fitted cameras and have watched them build nests, lay the eggs, feed the chicks till eventualy, they fly off.

Usually get 8-10 eggs per box.

This year, when it was warm the nests were built ok and the eggs laid and incubated. Then the cold weather came. The box on the house only had one parent. She struggled to keep them warm and fed. One by one they started dying, till 5 were left. This morning she has gone and they were all dead. The box on the tree has two parents. Started with 10 chicks and got down to 5. One sits on the chicks while the other brings food. This morning one jumped up to get the grub and fell out the nest. The parents just left it and within hours it was dead. So now we have four.
I think the problem is because of the cold weather there aren't enough grubs about.
With a bit of luck these 4 will make it.

[swerve]

What type of birds are they rick.

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

If I type the name, the automatic anti swearing function will kick in.

The are varieties called Blue, long tailed, coal ,yellow.

This is in uk BTW

[olive]

Might be Great ....

For four years now we have had a pair successfully raise good broods from of all things an old Spanish Water jug on a patio.

Have some good photos of the parents flying in and out but not of the time the birds flew for the first time and the last one out stopped for a rest on a persons head!

[Trigger]

That is the downside of having a camera in the nest, you sometimes see things you don't want to. We put a camera in the sparrows box last year. One brood all survived, one brood all perished and the third brood was very distressing as we watched the two larger chicks take it in turns to sit on the smaller chick when the parent returned with food. Inevitably the poor little thing died.
This year they have built their nest so that the lens is cover with feathers so we can't see a thing!

[country boy]

We're having a disastrous year with the Swallows. Three broods have failed; two by Sparrow Hawk attacks. There simply isn't enough food about in general this year. Even the cuckoos have moved on!

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Down to three.

Parent presently eating latest fatality.

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

The remaining three seem to be thriving.

[swerve]

Good to hear. This warm weather may have saved them with plenty more bugs about.

[Wicksey]

Might be Great ....

For four years now we have had a pair successfully raise good broods from of all things an old Spanish Water jug on a patio.

A few weeks back we notice a Great T1T disappearing into the top of a hollow metal post in the garden (probably an old washing line support). We looked down inside one night with a torch and way down, possibly about 18" , was a bird sitting on a nest. Sometimes when we pass by it we hear a lot of fluttering and the bird eventually pops out of the top and flies off. I cannot believe that they want to nest in there as the post is too hot to touch when the sun's been on it. If it does successfully raise chicks, we are wondering how they'll ever manage to fly out. Rick's camera would be useful to see what is happening down inside, but I do wonder if they will survive.

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

The cameras are about £30 to buy and just plug into the scart socket on your tv and a mains socket.

We also have two hedgehogs which arrive at 10pm on the dot each night to feed. They sometimes do a strange ritual. The bigger one (male?) circles round the female but she keeps her nose facing him so he can't jump on her. Eventualy he gets fed up and walks off. I think she must have been talking to my OH.

[patricia]

A camara would be interesting Rick. Where do you buy them!!

[Bluefish]

I have a pair of wrens nesting feet away. Probably flown in from Portsmouth Dockyard !! This is my first post, be gentle !!

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Patricia... just google "Bird Box Cameras"


Bluefish.... see you are in Cortez.

That's where I got food poisoning from a tapas bought at cafe on the left as you get to town from the north. Looking at Google street view it seems to be next door to a bull ring (?)

[Wicksey]

The cameras are about £30 to buy and just plug into the scart socket on your tv and a mains socket.

Does that mean you need a very long scart lead from the nest area to your TV?

Anyone know anything about bird behaviour and why the aforementioned bird insists on stripping all the leaves off the avocado tree next to where it is nesting? The poor thing was not the best specimen and was just beginning to look healthier this year but this bird lands on it and pecks off all the new leaves as they appear, so the tree is almost bare now It doesn't seem to do anything with the leaves but just drop them onto the ground.

[concorde]

Our neighbour has 2 birdboxes just outside his study window, he has a camera in one and we love to watch the activity going on.
Last year, all the birds had fledged and flown so he was just checking that the box was empty on camera.
He noticed a large twig-like thing waving about right in front of the screen, he was puzzling as to what it was when suddenly a humongous spider emerged, waving its other twiggy legs, it just about covered the lens.

He got such a fright, he fell off his chair.

[Wicksey]

He noticed a large twig-like thing waving about right in front of the screen, he was puzzling as to what it was when suddenly a humongous spider emerged, waving its other twiggy legs, it just about covered the lens.

He got such a fright, he fell off his chair.

..... I think I would have died of fright ....
We have those huge stripy-legged ones here ..... thankfully they usually stay outside. I saw its eyes glowing in the dark when the headlights picked them out on the driveway one night. I thought it was a mouse when I first saw it, but when I investigated closer with a torch it was a spider

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

wicksey.

there's a very long thin lead from the camera, which comes from the box to the inside of the house to a scart plug.

The three survivors left the nest today.

Bon chance mon braves