lost great tit brood

[feathered-friend]

Sad news we lost our great tit brood.

I estimated them to be about 2 weeks, so was a bit concerned today not to hear the chicks or see the parents about. I decided to check the box and found 1 dead chick about 2 weeks old sitting on 4 dead chicks a bit younger as they were only partially feathered.

I guess the parents continued to feed the 1 until that succumbed. The weathers been fine here, although there has been 1 or 2 cold nights, so I imagine there has been enough insects about.

There were certainly 2 parents feeding last weekend anyway.

Any ideas what may have happened? I dont suppose it was healthy for the one to sit on 4 dead chicks. Should we have disinfected the box before the season?

Will the parents try again? I know its nature and we should not interfere but perhaps if they had nested in our camera box we could have helped remove the dead chicks!

[feathered-friend]

For those that are interested I have an update.

I cleaned and disinfected the box last Sunday. Checked the box today and the nest is rebuilt with 2 eggs already laid!

In addition we have a blue tit nest building in our camera box, late in the season but perhaps a second brood too!

There is also a noisy blue tit family in a street light outside close to fledging any time now.

On the down side, 2 nest boxes we were watching online have failed ! One where they have gradually lost the chicks over 8 days

Has anyone had any blue tit or great tit successful fledgings yet.

[rossy]

hello featherd freind and it seems that a pattern is emerging as one or two others have had failures with blue tits, cant help feeling the weather in which the temperature dropped last week ,and think the parents are struggling finding enough food for the chicks,as the bugs and grubs arent in abundance as they normally are at this time of the year. rossy

[feathered-friend]

I wonder if there is a pattern too.

4 of our original Great tit chicks seemed to die together, someone suggested it may be food they ate and asked whether we have had much volcanic ash fallout? ie: ash falling on trees and grubs, don't know how plausible this is but I don't think we have had alot of ash.

The bluetits about to fledge have been fed alot of fat cake and sponge cake by the parents as well as insects so perhaps there is a shortage of natural food!

What do others think?