NestEnders Update – April 7th

It’s all ‘go’ in my garden and, at this time of the year, I spend a silly amount of time watching footage, uploading and processing clips and sharing my footage. The incredible response I get from people all over the world (mainly on Twitter!) keeps me doing it, as I feel that my clips can engage and get people interested in the wonderful British wildlife that is right on our doorsteps!

I am filming a selection of nests this year and things are looking promising. The first clips are from my Hub nest box, which is live streaming t the moment, so you can log in and watch it via my website or on CJ WIldlife’s website.

The blue tits have been busy over the last few days, making final touches to the nest. Once they have built the majority of the nest, they begin to bring in softer materials, such as feathers, fluff and fur. Their ‘fluttering’ behaviour helps to form the cup in which the female will lay.

The blue tit will usually lay one egg a day. Mine seems to lay first thing in the morning and then covers the eggs. They usually lay anywhere between 6 and 14 eggs! I wonder how many we’ll have this year in this box?

By this morning, we had three beautiful eggs!

My other box, that I am finding it hard to drag myself away from, is my blackbirds in the honeysuckle by my pond. This pair have two chicks. One egg did not hatch. They are extremely diligent and they are bringing a lot of food. The chicks are growing at an incredible rate and look different each day! I am hoping to try to get this camera live streaming this week as it is such a lovely one to watch!

I created two sitting room nest boxes this year and this is the second one. You may have seen the first one, with the cat on the shelf? That one has gone very quiet this week. Initially it was the same pair building in both the Hub box and the Cat sitting room box. They then decided on the hub box. There is another blue tit pair checking out the Cat Sitting room box, so fingers crossed, they will decide to move in.

This second box is mounted up ion the side of my house. The blue tits started looking in about a week ago, but in the last few days have really started building seriously. It started with some serious competition at this pair had to fight to take it as their own. This is the first time I have filmed a fight like this!

Once they had established the ownership of this desirable property, the blue tits started bringing in moss at quite a pace and they have filled the bottom of the box in just a few days. Again, if it remains quiet in the Cat Sitting room box, I will swap the live stream over to this one instead and then you will be able to watch it on my website.

I feel confident that these two will nest now and I just hope that the other sitting room box will have residents soon too!



from www.wildlifekate.co.uk https://wildlifekate.wordpress.com/2019/04/07/nestenders-update-april-7th/

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