Your Camera Nest boxes

[pat362]

Thanks for that Elizabeth, very interestiing! The male does come and feed her sometimes but not very often, so perhaps she's just out getting food. She's not usually out for long, though a couple of times she's missing for a couple of minutes. Do males have more than one nest on the go and he's trying to feed 2 wives at the same time? Wonder how they manage feeding the chicks in that case, as I understand that feeding becomes quite frantic once the eggs hatch.

Pat

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth B

The female BT in Box 2 (Bella) <snip> this female (Fay) leaves much more often -

So how come the females have been blessed with names, but the males haven't?
;^)

Jim

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

So how come the females have been blessed with names, but the males haven't?
;^)

Jim

At first I didn't put in any names, because some people clearly think this is rather weird, but having mentioned the females a few times, I decided to use the names we've given them. However, since you ask - Box 1 is owned by Fay and Bill, Box 2 belongs to Bella and Bertie.

We had birds using Box 3 in 2007 and 2008, and we used the same names both years - Abbie and Angus (but no-one noticed the connection between the names - my tiny mind was amused by the name I thought up to go with Abbie), but this year in spite of visits from great tits, bluetits and a nuthatch, it's not being used.

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by pat362

Do males have more than one nest on the go and he's trying to feed 2 wives at the same time? Wonder how they manage feeding the chicks in that case, as I understand that feeding becomes quite frantic once the eggs hatch.

Pat

I've never heard of a male bluetit having two wives, though I know someone who has two females sharing a box and a male - they laid 17 eggs between them, and there are now at least 10 chicks! I've known this on a couple of other occasions too.

However, male dunnocks are well known for having more than one wife - but according to my reference book a dunnock's clutch is usually just 4 to 5 eggs. Still two separate nests means more travelling time - feeding certainly does become frantic when the chicks are all demanding food.

[kiwi]

I wish i set up a camera on the house martin nest on our house. Although I'm not even sure its occupied i heard lots of tweeting and 2 house martins flying in and out of it then i have only seen one going in and coming out about 2 times.

[cutecoot]

Originally Posted by kiwi

I wish i set up a camera on the house martin nest on our house. Although I'm not even sure its occupied i heard lots of tweeting and 2 house martins flying in and out of it then i have only seen one going in and coming out about 2 times.

Oh, that would have been really great to see, kiwi ... maybe next year?!

[cutecoot]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth B

My husband has just whizzed through 4½ hours of photos (that's about 10,000 )

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by cutecoot

The image capturing software we use can save up to 4 pics per second - and we have two cameras each for Box 1 and Box 2. Sadly, Box 3 which has three cameras, is not occupied this year. There's also a cam for the bird table, and another for the fat feeder (though at the moment that's showing a peanut feeder), but I think they are set to catch fewer pics/second.

At night, there's a hedgehog cam!

[cutecoot]

Would love to see pix of that hedgehog, Elizabeth!

Bit of sad news here ... out of those 6 original starlings, last night I was able to make out at least 5 of them in the nest still, but today only two (very large and healthy!) remaining, and now revealed a slightly smaller dead bird ... have no idea what has happened to the other 3 .

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by cutecoot

Would love to see pix of that hedgehog, Elizabeth!

Just ask!



The ground feeder cage didn't keep out starlings - but I found an alternative use for it! A fox visits regularly and I'm sure it could easily get at the food if it was hungry enough. I'm glad that the cage keeps out those ******* cats from next door too.