Friday 10 June 2016

Blue Tit Webcam - Part Three



The final instalment of our Blue Tit webcam began with one healthy chick remaining in the nest. The second chick had been slow to feed. One night it disappeared. We assume that it must have died in the night and was removed by the parent bird. The top photo shows the remaining chick snuggled up in the nest with its mother.


The chick changed and grew daily, gaining more and more markings and characteristics of an adult Blue Tit.



The unhatched eggs were still in the nest.




In this fuzzy picture, both the parent birds arrived at once to feed the chick.




The days went by, but a change came on the seventeenth day after hatching. We switched on the webcam images in the morning to find that the mother bird, so diligent and always with her chick when not out finding food, had disappeared. 

 The hungry chick was peeping and moving around its nest. We feared that it had been abandoned.
At last, the male bird appeared with a maggot and fed his chick. He seemed to realise that it was now his job to care for this youngster and he went off hunting again. For two days, the male bird fed the chick, who grew rapidly and began to spread his wings and hop around inside the nest box.

The mother never returned. She must have been predated by a magpie, a crow, a sparrow hawk or a cat. Our own cats are on curfew while the birds are fledging, but it could have been the black cat from along the lane.
A sad ending for a hard working and attentive little bird, but that is the way that nature works.

Here is the male bird feeding his chick.



Last Friday, in the middle of the morning, the bird had flown!
Mr DW went outside to see both parent and chick on the roof of the house, not far from the nest box.
The chick was fed and then both birds flew off together. We hope that they reached the cover of a nearby old oak tree and that one healthy chick and his father escape the predators and have the chance to live.



9 comments:

Down by the sea said...

I'm so glad that one managed to survive. Your webcam just shows how difficult life can be for the birds. So sad the mother didn't return. Sarah x

crafty cat corner said...

Thanks for a lovely post, we don't seem to have any bluetits here this year, a couple of great tits are in the hole in the tree and we have a sparrow feeding on the feeder. Our problem is that all or most of the gardens around here are paved or gravelled and all of the trees and bushes that used to abound are disappearing, so sad.
Briony
x

SeagullSuzie said...

So glad it made it with dad in the end.

Bovey Belle said...

Fingers crossed for it. I wonder what the outcome was for the Springwatch Great Tit chick (reared by the Blue Tit parents)? I rescued a Blackcap today - one of the cats brought it in, having caught it. I have never seen one in my garden before (so probably from the paddock area) - it was very gracile and beautiful. I scooped it up from behind the bread maker and let it out of the kitchen window to fly off to safety.

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

I'm so glad there was a happy result!

Ragged Robin said...

I am so pleased one chick fledged successfully thanks to Dad - so sad about the mother.

It can be very harrowing at times watching nestcams especially when some of chicks are struggling and others are getting all the food :( But it is a privilege to watch at such close quarters. Three fledged here from the original nine eggs but the last 2 years none survived.

Rowan said...

That's rather a sad ending but well done Mr Blue Tit for managing to bring the surviving chick to the point of fledging. Like you I hope they both survive.

Crafty Green Poet said...

sorry that the mother didn't make it, but glad that one chick survived.

The Weaver of Grass said...

A rather sad ending DW but I am pleased that one chick survived. We have a nest in our garden wall, just outside the landing window. Both parents are working very hard and we expect chicks to emerge any day.
We have a pair of magpies and a pair of jackdaws always on the prowl. I keep chasing them off - so I hope the tits survive.