This year, we have had interest in our second box (only put up this year) - and now have a nest with 4 eggs to date. They are very late starting - down to the poor spring I would guess. The male roosts in the first box (which is about 4 years old) - we had to take that one down today to remove a wasps nest! Here is a pic from yesterday when we had 3 eggs - and the second pic shows the wasp nest we removed from the other box - it had 4 or 5 cells in with maybe 3 eggs .
That IS great Sue - seems late right enough. We had swallows in our nest in the close last year, but not seen any activity there (yet?) Good luck little eggs! (and good riddance to the wasps )
I was torn with the wasps - fascinating to watch the nest grow, but once it gets big it would have been a menace, on the shed - someone would have been stung when mowing the grass or picking poo. It was with a heavy heart I sprayed the powder in this morning
I know what you mean....the nests are fascinating, but the wasps themselves are not very human-friendly.
I think we've stopped at 6 eggs - the female looks to have started brooding them today - her partner has been in to feed her.
..quick update - eggs are beginning to hatch today..12 days after I thought brooding started - it must have been earlier. 2 out of a total of 8 eggs have hatched so far. Exciting stuff
Wonderful. Please keep the action coming. I have 8 bird boxes, but none with camera in them. I may just get one for next year after seeing yours
looks like 5 or 6 chicks so far - just watched Mrs Tit eat some egg shell - I always thought they carried the empty shells away until I watched Springwatch last night.
it's been getting bigger and deeper as the chicks have grown. ?Mum spends a lot of time "digging" into it which has been making the cup bigger (as well as cleaning). If all 8 eggs had hatched it would need to be huge.
Oh Sue, I have really enjoyed watch these birds with you. Thank you for sharing with us I thought that was the Mother bird
