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19-01-2008, 02:54 PM
|  | Active Member | | Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Albrighton
Posts: 37
| | | Blue Tits numbers
Hi all.
I read on tinternet late last year that the terrible spring and winter weather had killed off as many as 10million blue tit chicks, about 48% of the breeding numbers. I seem to remember that the report read that the south wasnt so badly affected but that the midlands and the north had been very badly hit. I must admit, I have only seen a couple flitting about recently, just wondered what the rest of the nation was experiencing.
Andy |
19-01-2008, 03:20 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Grimsby, Lincs
Posts: 1,573
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
Still plenty around here, we get the odd couple in the Garden on the Sunflower Hearts, but there are plenty in the local wood  |
19-01-2008, 03:23 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Northants
Posts: 4,798
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
When I'm out with the dog there are lots in the wooded areas just off the farmland. We have had two in the garden all winter, I hope they are a pair and when they breed they get better luck than they had last year. |
19-01-2008, 04:08 PM
|  | Member of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Mayford, Surrey
Posts: 312
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
There's not been any significant change from previous years in the bluetit numbers in our garden, although for the first time since we've been watching via cameras (we started in 2001) both our bluetit boxes failed - all the chicks died within a day or two of hatching.
There's a link to the BTO report here: Birds count cost of awful summer |
19-01-2008, 04:18 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Mid Glamorgan South Wales
Posts: 1,841
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
We seem to have a very healthy population in our garden and most of the local walks we cover at the mo.
__________________
They told me I was gullible... and I believed them ! |
19-01-2008, 04:57 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: West Molesey, Surrey
Posts: 1,539
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
The south was hit pretty hard too. The ringers at out nature reserve didn't ring a single blue tit born last year. This is the first time in over 20 years that that has happened.
Cheers,
Adam |
19-01-2008, 05:01 PM
|  | Active Member | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: near Cambridge
Posts: 1,095
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
I haven't noticed any significant decline in numbers in this area, and certainly not in the garden.
Jeff |
19-01-2008, 05:13 PM
|  | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: SE Kent
Posts: 894
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
Like Elizabeth B,
The Blue Tit young in our boxes did not fare too well, 2 out of 8 made it out the Bay tree box and survived, then the same parent birds laid another clutch of 5 eggs in the garage box , none of which survived past 4 weeks.
So in SE Kent, it was a bad year last year, it was put down to the weather and the lack of grubs as food. 
Duncan. |
19-01-2008, 05:15 PM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: SE Kent
Posts: 894
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
As a "ps" to the above post,
The two that did survive are still arround in the garden.
Duncan |
19-01-2008, 05:25 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Scotland
Posts: 3,125
| | | Re: Blue Tits numbers
They are about the most common bird in my area but there seems to be a drop in sparrow, thrushes and dunnocks. | | |
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