Diary of the BirdBoxCam, May 2005

27.5.2005

Still one egg in box 6.

In the morning one dead chick was carried out from the box.

Video: 050527_0611_P6_kuollut_poikanen_ulos.AVI - 16 sec - 138 kb

Video: 050527_0617_P6_kuollut_poikanen_ulos.AVI - 1 min 03 sec - 226 kb

The great tit is doing well. All five alive. Two of the are smaller than the other three. That's because they were hatched during a period of three days. Three on the first day, one on second and one on the third.

Video: 050527_1633_P1_ruokintaa.AVI - 1 min 21 sek - 592 kt

All five in a nice circle.

26.5.2005

In the picture to the right there are nine chicks clearly visible.

There is 8 hours between this two pictures and you can already see how the chicks are growing!

25.5.2005

Four chicks in box 1 and one unhatched egg. The male and gemale are both feeding the chicks normally. The weather is warm and beautivfull so there should be plenty of food awailable.

Video: 050525_0640_P1_ruokintaa.AVI - 2 min 35 sec - 686 kb

In box 6 there are now at least seven chicks and still some unhatched eggs. The feeding is looking good here too.

Seven chicks visible in the picture above and in the video:

Video: 050525_1903_P6_poikaset.AVI - 34 sec - 142 kb

Video: 050525_0638_P6_ruokintaa.AVI - 33 sec - 278 kb

24.5.2005

Eggs hatched in both goxes today.

Female eats the shell.

Video: 050524_1335_P1_emo_syo_kuoria.avi - 1 min 19 sec - 630 kb

One of the first meal for the chicks.

Video: 050524_1216_P1_ruokinta.avi - 1 min 47 sec -582 kb

Hatching on video. First video is 5x faster than normal. The other at normal speed.

Video: 050524_1324_P1_kuoriutuminen.avi - 37 sec - 338 kb

Video: 050524_1324_P1_kuoriutuminen_b.avi - 1 min 34 sec - 198 kb

Feeding:

Video: 050524_1930_P1_ruokinta.avi - 1 min 8 sec - 366 kb

In the evening there were still two eggs unhatched.

Eggs in the blue tit box started also to hatch in the afternoon.

A hatching on a video.

Video: 050524_1501_P6_kuoriutuminen.avi - 3 min - 774 kb

Female eats the shell. Male is feeding.

There were still many eggs in the nest at the ewening.

Video: 050524_1617_P6_ruokintaa.avi - 1 min 44 sec - 666 kb

18.5.2005

Instead of box 1, box 2 was monitored for a couple of days. The nest building started here on 1st May. All seven was layed on 15th May so the egg laying must have started on 9th May. The hatching should occure at 29th May.

The male is feeding the female:

Video: 050517_1908_P3_koiras_ruokkii_naaraan.AVI - 1 min 10 sek - 486 kt

Click on picture:

Sometimes there is a squirrel in the same three as the box is mounted. The squirrel is sitting on the roof of the box and the female is wery angry and is defending the nest:

Video: 050517_1407_P3_talitiainen_puolustaa.AVI - 2 min 7sek - 648 kt

16.5.2005

Instead of box 1, box 3 was monitored for a couple of days. The nest building started here on 6th May. All seven eggs was layed on 15th May so the egg laying must have started on 9th May, only three days after the nest building was started. The hatching should occure at 29th May.

All seven eggs. The last of them was layed early in the morning on 15th May.

A video of the female entering the box.

Video: P3_050514_talitiainen_sisaan.avi - 31 sec - 164 kb

14.5.2005

Ten eggs in this picture in box 6? The magnification is with added contrast and shows us that there most likely is ten eggs. It has newer been as difficult to count the eggs.

13.5.2005

Still not sure if there are 9 or 10 eggs in box 6. From this picture you can cout nine or teh if you want to. But ten is not for sure.

12.5.2005

Great tit in box 1 now have five eggs and she has started the incubation. Four eggs is quite a few to the great tit wich usually have 6 to 12 eggs. Maybe this give better opportunity for the chicks to survive.

11.5.2005

The blue tit in box 6 has started the incubation. It is not sure if there is nine or ten eggs. Everything that looks like an egg is not.

Gteat tit in box 1 has four eggs. The male feeding the female.

Looks like she will soon start the incubation.

10.5.2005

Whos feather might that be? Not her own.

Male feeding the female.

Video: 050510_P6_koiras_ruokkiii_naaraan_3.AVI - 1 min 37 sec - 736 kb

The blue tit have nine eggs at the moment.

The great tit have three eggs.

9.5.2005

The great tit have two eggs. In the picture to the right there could be even three eggs.

A bumblebee is here visiting the box.

Video: 050502_P1_kimalainen.avi - 27 sec - 122 kb

The blue tit layed one egg more last night and there are now eight eggs. The incubation have not yet started even if the bird have been in the box during the day few times.

8.5.2005

First egg in box 1 was visible in the morning. There may be more eggs in the nest but this is the first one we can see so far.

The blue tit in box 6 may have at least six, maybe seven eggs. I all eggs are in the same location in these two pictures then there are seven. The bird seems already to start incubation. Usually blue tits have more eggs, between 10 and 13.

7.5.2005

Six eggs in box 6.

6.5.2005

No eggs yet in box 1. If there is some they are hidden.

Five eggs in blue tit box 6.

This moning a great tit started to build a nest in box3. In afternoon it looks like this:

So quite effective work, you could say! Less than 10 hours to this point.

In box 2 a great tit started the nesting 1st May. Today it looks like this:

In both box2 and box3 there stayed a bird roosting ower night.

The distance of box2 and box3 is only 15 meters, about 47 feet. Pretty close but ok for these great tits. Box 6 is 10 meters from box2 and box3.

There are no real time picture from box 2 and 3. We try to follow these boxes here in the diary.

Four eggs.

Video: 050505_P6_nelja_munaa.AVI - 49 sec - 462 kb

4.5.2005

Three eggs in box6.

The egg laying may occur on this video:

Video: 050504_P6_muninta.AVI - 1min 1 sec - 740 kb

Nest building:

Video: 050504_P6_pesanrakennusta_pehmusteita.AVI - 31 sec - 458 kb

Being busy with the entrance:

Video: 050504_P6_aukon_koputtelua.AVI - 1 min 1 sec - 896 kb

3.5.2005

Second egg in box 6.

2.5.2005

The first egg in box6 early in the morning.

Here some nest building in the morning. Some paddings installed.

Video: 050502_P1_sinitiainen_tuo_pehmusteita_yksi_muna.avi - 1 min 1 sec - 896 kb

The bird came back in the evening. In the picture to the right we can see the beak of the male peeking into the box.

1.5.2005

Some more material brought into box1. No one roosted there last night and it seems to be the situation this night also.

The camera from box 5 moved to box 6 where a blue tit have be seen for a coulpe of weeks. In the afternoon there were no birds nearby so it was a good time to install the camera. Box 6 is installed a year ago. There was poosibly a bird roosting last winter. It has a entrance oa 28 mm and the diameter of the box is 10 x 10 cm.

Box 6 is located on a small spruce. Installation of the camera took only a couple minutes. The camera shows us an allmost ready nest of a blue tit. No eggs was seen. Two hours later the nest owner came home.