Fledgling Day

mrs fish · #1 (**permalink**) 22-05-2008, 08:47 AM

The great tits in my nest box have been leaving this morning

I hope they all make it in the big wide world

Good luck little birds

witham · #2 (**permalink**) 22-05-2008, 09:02 AM

Ahh bless, if only they knew the perils that could lie ahead they'd be popping back in again

bon voyage birdies

deer boy · #3 (**permalink**) 22-05-2008, 02:53 PM

Nice pics mrs fish hopefully they'll be back next year

mrs fish · #4 (**permalink**) 22-05-2008, 02:56 PM

I was wondering how long g tits live as this is the 5th year of them nesting and are they the same birds? Two years previous were blue tits.

I'm not happy about to-days as they are still on the ground

annmaria · #5 (**permalink**) 22-05-2008, 06:38 PM

Hi ,Lovely pics, is there a sort of recognized time of day for birds to leave a nest box ( sos if this is a really stupid question) Only its the second year for a pair of coal tits and we missed the big event last year......I would love to see them emerge this year!
Annmaria

mrs fish · #6 (**permalink**) 22-05-2008, 07:37 PM

It is usually in the mornings about 8-9am they start to leave, you can listen for the parents calling them nearby usually with food in their beaks to entice them out

I hope you get to see your coal tits fledge

annmaria · #7 (**permalink**) 24-05-2008, 10:07 AM

Too late we missed them, they were still in last night........and I forgot to check till about 8.30am.......never mind they are still in the garden I think

Annmaria

galanthus · #8 (**permalink**) 24-05-2008, 09:36 PM

Awww bless, they are gorgeous

Still waiting for our blue tit fledglings to come out. Hope it's over bank holiday so that I'm home to see them.

sleipnerofasgard · #9 (**permalink**) 24-05-2008, 10:50 PM

i read somewhere recently that the average lifespan for birds of this size is 18 months although there have been cases of some that have lived to the ripe old age of 7 years so unless they are ringed there is no way to tell if they are the same birds but the odds are against it

mrs fish · #10 (**permalink**) 27-05-2008, 05:44 PM

Update

Sadly none of them survived , I knew they didn't have much of a chance when they hadn't flown into the tree by evening on the day of fledging.
I had my suspicions that the parents had called them out early for a reason so to-day I took the nest box down and had a look inside, there was a dead baby, very smelly and full of maggots

What I also found was a tiny little egg, about the size of a chocolate mini egg , that was quite thrilling to see

They may have another brood this year, last year they had one in June so we will see