Bluetits together in Box 1

[Elizabeth B]

We don't often get a good pic of both birds in the box together at this stage of their relationship, but we caught one today. We see this sort of thing quite often, but usually one bird is blurred as it makes its escape - we have to wait until the male is bringing food to the incubating female before we see them together for any length of time.

One of the birds is taking a lot of interest in the camera. In our first year of watching via a webcam, the bird managed to squeeze past the camera and get up into the "attic". Fortunately if didn't damage the wiring too much, and now the boxes have been modified to stop them getting up there.

[badgerwatcher]

Oh, that's great, Elizabeth. It's very early, isn't it?
We've put boxes up, and blue tits are showing lots of interest, as are some great tits. One blue tit spent a lot of today tapping vigorously on the outside of the box. Have you seen this behaviour before?
Also, many of the blue tits I'm seeing at the moment look very round. Is that because they are producing eggs, I'm completely clueless about these things, or am I feeding them too much?

[Elizabeth B]

It's going to be a long time before they start producing eggs - I reckon they're just fluffing themselves up to keep warm, I doubt if you could feed them too much. If you go to our bluetit website, and click on Overview in the Index, you'll see dates of egg laying, hatching etc

Malcolm & Elizabeth's Bluetit Pages

Bluetits tend to tap around on the box quite a lot at first - maybe checking to make sure it's a good place to build a nest???

[James_Owen]

By this time it seems many nest boxes are already being inspected by prospective couples, last year we even had a wren build two nests before February. That's why it's always so important to put nest boxes out as early as the Autumn, so the birds can be sure it's a safe permanent fixture.

[Elizabeth B]

I've just been looking for something on the RSPB site, and discovered this explanation:

Why are blue tits pecking at my nestbox in autumn? - The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

We always aim to clean out our nestboxes and have them ready for use in the autumn, and the RSPB says - "Nestboxes are best put up during the autumn" - so I cannot understand why they have their Nestbox Week in February. It's the week that includes Valentine's Day - the day birds pair up, according to folk lore. I know people do have success with a box put up so late, but it's not the best choice.

[James_Owen]

Interesting question, perhaps worth writing to their magazine if you're a member.
I'd suppose if they got the the general public all excited about putting boxes up in November they may very well have lost interest about them by the Spring.

We're thinking about swift boxes for the summer. We had a pair investing roof cavities last year but every decent site was already occupied by house sparrows who were eager to chase away the intruders. I'm still trying to imagine the shock of the nesting sparrows next door when they returned to find a swift inspecting their brood.