I want to share with you my own Lockdown Springwatch, filmed in (you've guessed it) my back garden. Before you switch off.............. I can promise you drama, danger, excitement and plenty of characters............. so read on!
Up first is the story of our Blue Tits.
Many of you will be familiar with our resident Psycho Blue Tit who roosts in our nest-box over winter and chases everything else away. Psycho lives in the new nest-box which is fitted with an internal camera, hence we can see him roosting:
There is however an old nest-box mounted on the garden fence (which doesn't have an internal camera) and another pair of Blue Tits took an interest in it:
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| Psycho in his nest-box |
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| Psycho settling down to roost |
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| Sometimes the window ledge is more comfortable |
There is however an old nest-box mounted on the garden fence (which doesn't have an internal camera) and another pair of Blue Tits took an interest in it:
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| Blue Tit checks out Old Nest-box |
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| Blue Tit decides Old Nest-box is Fab |
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| Blue Tit flies off to tell mate. |
Not content with the old box, one of the new pair of Blue Tits decided to have a look in Psycho's nest-box when he wasn't around. Unfortunately Psycho did return and catch the intruder in his box:
I even managed to capture this incident on the nest-box camera:
I love how he came back after chasing the intruder away to check under the carpet (sandpaper) to make sure nobody was hiding there.
Psycho continued to harass this potential breeding pair for some weeks, but they continued to take nesting material in to the old box, despite his repeated attacks.
Eventually Psycho gave up and decided to leave his winter roost and perhaps even went to look for a mate of his own?
I love how he came back after chasing the intruder away to check under the carpet (sandpaper) to make sure nobody was hiding there.
Psycho continued to harass this potential breeding pair for some weeks, but they continued to take nesting material in to the old box, despite his repeated attacks.
Eventually Psycho gave up and decided to leave his winter roost and perhaps even went to look for a mate of his own?
Shortly after this the old box went a bit quiet, with only one bird visiting it every now and then. My guess was that the female Blue Tit was on eggs and the male was occasionally bring food to her.
A female Blue Tit usually lays an egg per day, for about ten days, then she will start to incubate them. After a further two weeks the eggs will start to hatch and that is when both Blue Tits get very busy, providing food for the young, and keeping the nest clean:
A female Blue Tit usually lays an egg per day, for about ten days, then she will start to incubate them. After a further two weeks the eggs will start to hatch and that is when both Blue Tits get very busy, providing food for the young, and keeping the nest clean:
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| In the nest-box |
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| Out the nest-box |
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| In the nest-box |
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| Out the nest-box |
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| Bringing in food |
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| Removing Facal Sac (not eating an ice cream cone?) |
This was a very busy time for our Blue Tit pair, and it went on for about three weeks. Then one morning I noticed one of the chicks peering out of the hole in the nest-box, so I quickly grabbed my camcorder:
The chick looked pretty well developed and I knew that it wouldn't be long until the fledged and left the nest-box; in fact later on that same morning the first chick did leave the nest-box and fly on to our shed roof:
This was not the safest place to land as there is no cover and the shed roof is a popular landing pad for many predatory birds such as Magpies, Jackdaws, Carrion Crows and Lesser Black-backed Gulls:
A Blue Tit chick would make a very tasty snack for these gulls, luckily they were not on the shed roof when the first chick fledged. After a bit of calling from the Blue Tit adults the chick soon flew off to the safety of a nearby tree.
With one chick fledged I turned my camera back over to the nest-box, just in time to catch the second Blue Tit chick fledging:
After leaving the slippy branch the second chick flew right on to (you've guessed it) the shed roof:
The adult soon persuaded it to return to the safety of the tree.
We kept an eye on the nest-box over the next few hours and noticed that the adults were still taking in food, indicating there were still chicks in the box. We never saw any more chicks fledge that day.
The following morning we noticed that one chick was being fed at the opening to the nest-box, so I got my camcorder out in the hope of capturing the fledging:
Unfortunately I moved my camcorder to get a better angle and missed the actual moment the chick left the nestbox..................Doh!
I checked but it didn't land on the shed roof.
That turned out to be the last chick to fledge as the parents returned to the box only to check it was empty. The others must have fledged earlier in the morning, there were definitely more than three chicks as we had heard several cheeping from various trees near to our garden.
So that was our heartwarming story of the Blue Tit nesting success.
What about the usual backyard characters? how are they doing?
Well I gave you an update on Psycho Blue Tit above; who was still being Psycho up until the end of April, then he went off to pastures new/find himself/start a family (delete as appropriate).
Duncan the Carrion Crow is still dunkin his bread in the bird-bath, but Duncanson hadn't been seen for weeks, then he turned up a few days ago. We are starting to think he may be a she, and is in fact Duncan's mate who has been on eggs and raising young? Food for thought?.............. here is Duncan looking pensive/nervous:
This was not the safest place to land as there is no cover and the shed roof is a popular landing pad for many predatory birds such as Magpies, Jackdaws, Carrion Crows and Lesser Black-backed Gulls:
A Blue Tit chick would make a very tasty snack for these gulls, luckily they were not on the shed roof when the first chick fledged. After a bit of calling from the Blue Tit adults the chick soon flew off to the safety of a nearby tree.
With one chick fledged I turned my camera back over to the nest-box, just in time to catch the second Blue Tit chick fledging:
After leaving the slippy branch the second chick flew right on to (you've guessed it) the shed roof:
The adult soon persuaded it to return to the safety of the tree.
We kept an eye on the nest-box over the next few hours and noticed that the adults were still taking in food, indicating there were still chicks in the box. We never saw any more chicks fledge that day.
The following morning we noticed that one chick was being fed at the opening to the nest-box, so I got my camcorder out in the hope of capturing the fledging:
Unfortunately I moved my camcorder to get a better angle and missed the actual moment the chick left the nestbox..................Doh!
I checked but it didn't land on the shed roof.
That turned out to be the last chick to fledge as the parents returned to the box only to check it was empty. The others must have fledged earlier in the morning, there were definitely more than three chicks as we had heard several cheeping from various trees near to our garden.
So that was our heartwarming story of the Blue Tit nesting success.
What about the usual backyard characters? how are they doing?
Well I gave you an update on Psycho Blue Tit above; who was still being Psycho up until the end of April, then he went off to pastures new/find himself/start a family (delete as appropriate).
Duncan the Carrion Crow is still dunkin his bread in the bird-bath, but Duncanson hadn't been seen for weeks, then he turned up a few days ago. We are starting to think he may be a she, and is in fact Duncan's mate who has been on eggs and raising young? Food for thought?.............. here is Duncan looking pensive/nervous:
The finches that entertained us over the winter months continued to come to our feeder until the end of April, then they visited much less frequently. I presumed that they were starting to feed chicks and were seeking out softer food than seeds, such as caterpillars, grubs and insects. Or it may have been because I ran out of sunflower hearts and only have mixed seed left?
Anyway here is some video taken before they left us:
There were plenty of other birds that continued to visit our garden over Spring, including the following:
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| Wood-Pigeon |
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| House-Sparrow |
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| Lesser-Black-Backed-Gull |
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| Maggy-Pie |
As well as these regulars we also had a few migrants popping in to our garden to feed on the insects on our Birch tree catkins. One day we had a group of four Willow Warblers and the following day it was a pair of Chiffchaffs..
I didn't get very good photos or video of the Willow Warblers, but here is what I managed to record of the Chiffchaffs fleeting visit:
Now for some jeopardy.
We discovered some Hedgehog poo in our garden one morning so I thought that I would put my trail camera out over night to see what we could capture. We didn't get any Hedgehogs on camera that night............. but if you look at the bottom left hand side of the video screen you will see what we did get:
It was a little Wood Mouse! ............but what made it jump? .............perhaps the next video can give us some clue:
This domestic cat spent almost half an hour searching for something in and around the flower pots.................. was it the Wood Mouse it was after? .............did it get it?
In the early morning light it all became clear:
Hurrah! Danger Mouse had survived!
For all you cat owners, it would be really appreciated if you can keep you cat indoors during the Wood Mouse breeding season................... it runs from April through to March............... only joking! .................but it would be good if your cat had a collar with a bell on it. Gives the mice and baby birds a fighting chance.
That's it from Lockdown Garden Springwatch, hope you enjoyed it.
Take extra care,
Teddyedward
