CAYSA's BIRDHOUSE CAM

Yes, everything ok now! Could hear the tits sing and other birds.
Can it be you hear the hens too? Yesterday I saw a tiny down-feather
in the air...a sparrow came and made a perfect dive and got the
feather and brought it to his nest in an elderbush...
Can the tits get some down from the hens??

Nice to have Juha at home...Easter-holidays??

caysa wrote: Sadly the adverts pop up every time you open the cam page

That´s okay. After all it is free of charge that way...

I think..... that we just MIGHT have the FIRST EGG



Momma bird (does she need a name perhaps??) is working hard on bringing in more stuff and covering it up.
I sure hope it is an egg - what do you think?

Bad visitor!!!! GRRRRR
A flycather came to check the nest . Not nice at all as they might steal the nest - what do I do???????

caysa wrote:I think..... that we just MIGHT have the FIRST EGG



Momma bird (does she need a name perhaps??) is working hard on bringing in more stuff and covering it up.
I sure hope it is an egg - what do you think?

for me it seems egg, too,they have little eggs. Congratulations!! you need give themfinnish names.

Of course it is an egg...and about the flycatcher...what could you do..
nothing I think. Chase him would chase the tits too...wait and see:
in nature such things happen and will be solved by themselves.
I only wonder how that bird could get in,is the hole that big that
bigger birds than a blue tit also can get in?? It seems like that...
Wish them all good luck and it is soo nice to see they accepted the nestbox!!

Flycatchers get in everywhere.... it is typical for them to steal bluetits' nests.... because bluetits are so tiny.
I guess we have to hope for the best.....

Seems to be an egg, yes

Here a male Redstart wanted to occupy the birdhourse of "our" Great Tits but did not succeed. Blue Tits are much smaller of course and cannot defend their home as easily as Great Tits can.
We put up another birdhourse for the Redstart which he has visited a few times but did not occupy it yet.

We have at least 10 birdhouses here so hopefully this one finds another place....

So far so good. She came home a bit earlier than usual and took care of her egg before going to sleep

and that might go on till about 10 eggs....And before 9 eggs
there might be no breeding yet....academici say!
Let's see if the scientists are right.
I do hope we will see young chickens that will leave the nest
healthy and strong...not so important how many there will be, or??




11 young bluetits in a nest....

hurrey!!

Yes, the bluetit does like the Mallard - she lays all eggs before starting the real incubating. Otherwise the first chick would be almost ready to leave the nest when the last one hatches

And, yes, it does not matter how many she lays but usually the first nesting has the most chicks. Remaisn to see

ergee wrote:Yes, everything ok now! Could hear the tits sing and other birds.
Can it be you hear the hens too? Yesterday I saw a tiny down-feather
in the air...a sparrow came and made a perfect dive and got the
feather and brought it to his nest in an elderbush...
Can the tits get some down from the hens??

Nice to have Juha at home...Easter-holidays??

I was thinking about this... the feathers and downs....
Small birds can get into the hen run but at the moment no hen is molting....
Seems to me that dog hair is very popular - even the tinest hairs they do pick up
Our dogs need a lot of combing and brushing daily now, as their wonter coat is coming off. The bird are immediately there and collects the hair. Some of them do it even while we are combing

Bluetit dad feeding on seeds this morning:

Mama has spent a little more time in the nest than usual in the mornings. Maybe because it is chilly outside - it was snowing during the night Papa bird thinks it is strange that mama is not with him... he paid her a rare but sweet visit in the nest

8.40 pm
Now I am also worried about the Bluetits....
This time Mama has already been in the nest and Dad has been calling outside. No sign of them tonight....


9.10 pm
Still no sign of the bluetits
What has happend??? All birds are silent now, except the blackbirds....
Has a Sparrowhawk taken my birds?????????????????

hope,that not....

This sounds horrible.....

No change in the situation here. No bird in the nest. A lot of other birds around but I have not seen any Bluetits around the nest birch - so far at least.
My heart is heavy

Awwwww....this is so sorrow

The situation seems to be, that yesterday afternoon, when I was not here, a Pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) male has taken over the nest. This is common and you might remember when I was already earlier scared....

What happens to the eggs now? Will you take them out of the box?
So an other bird could use the place for building a nest ...
Flycatchers are usefull birds...and whatever bird..they are all
nice!

ergee wrote:What happens to the eggs now? Will you take them out of the box?
So an other bird could use the place for building a nest ...
Flycatchers are usefull birds...and whatever bird..they are all
nice!

The Flycather male is "reserving" the nest now. I have not seen any females yet. They come in a few days. This is probably the same male that visited at the end of April. They will do nothing to the eggs - just build their nest on top of that. Thankfully there are no chicks there yet - they can also build on top of live chicks. The egg laying will begin only at the end of May
I like Flycatchers as birds.... they are really very useful in the garden. With many Flycathers every year we have quite peaceful summer evenings - they really eat a lot of mosquitos!!
I hope the Bluetits did find another spot for their nest. I saw a female collecting dog hair - hopefully it is "our female".
We have many nestboxes here and many other suitable places to nest.

And we have had some funny and clever birds too. One summer we had Gerat tits nesting under the roof of the coop.... During summer the chickens' hatch (little door) is open 24/7. It is just maybe 50 cm above ground and only big enough to fit one hen at a time. Well.... one morning I noticed that there was some really small bird poops under the roosts where the hens sit during the night. I did not think so much about it that day - just that maybe some little bird had got in by mistake. The following day - same thing, more poop! Now I was curios, what is this and who does it?? Next morning I went really early to the coop - quietly.... It was still not quite enough light for birds to wake up.
I opened the coop door - and what do I see Mama Great tit with 5 or 6 young ones sitting among the hens on one roost (a branch from a bearch). Clever mama had figured out that this is a safe place and there is food too I closed the door and let them be, they would have hurt themselves if they would have left the coop before it was light enough. For many weeks the tits came "home" in the evening and left in the morning.

This is so sweet bird story

Of course it is up to you what you do with the eggs, but
knowing how old eggs can smell and what can happen when a rotten
egg bursts, I prefer to remove such things to prevent that they can cause diseases to the new chicks. It's only my way of doing...nothing more and not better than other persons ideas...
MMallard threw the empty egg out of the nest...

I saw the mallard too - I do think she gave up. This was not the right place....

There is no hurry yet to do anything about the eggs in the birdhouse. In nature no one would do that....But also to me it would feel better to know that they are not there... I will try and contact a guy that is a ornitologist, he probably knows what is best.

I chatted to Ophy this morning - he thinks I should pick the eggs and incubate them
I have a small incubator and hatching them could work.... but.... feeding them for 2 weeks - I don't think so!!