Blue tit nest building

Back in February hubby placed 3 nest boxes in our garden hoping to encourage our local tit population to take up residence in at least one of the boxes. The first box is one that Aniello made a couple of years ago and which is very basic and roughly thrown together, then painted green with fence paint. I bought a beautiful one from Villager Jim's web site and the last one was bought from Lidl which also has a camera inside.

Aniello's nest box

Villager Jim nest box

Lidl camera nest box

The one Aniello made had a pair of Coal tits use it last spring and they managed to successfully raise four babies. 8 eggs were laid, 7 hatched but 3 chicks died at various stages. 

Last year's Coal tits

Coal tit babies from last year

During February and March we had plenty of visits from Great and Blue tits but I only spotted a Coal tit once. I've heard that birds usually return to their last successful breeding site but not this year for the Coal tits.

Coal Tit in March

I got quite excited when I spotted blue tits entering the box with the camera inside but they seemed much more interested in Aniello's thrown together box. I did notice a few times a blue tit having a nosy inside Villager Jim's nest box and I even posted a photo on his page for him to see. He messaged me back saying I'd made his day but sad to say it just never happened. I suppose there's still time but I doubt it'll happen this year now.

Blue tit visiting Villager Jim's box

We re-positioned the box with the camera in a couple of times thinking it was maybe just in the wrong place for the birds to take an interest, but apart from a couple of investigations they lost interest in that one. For some reason it was Aniello's nest box that was the main attraction.

All through March the blue tit went into the box and knocking noises could be heard. At this point I didn't know whether it was male or female. The bird also pecked around the hole and spat out tiny slivers of wood. This behaviour carried on daily into the second week of April, so one morning I looked inside the box to see if there was any sign of a nest being built. There was! 

I decided to buy a camera for the box and around 3pm on the 18th, hubby fitted the camera and I set the software up on my laptop. I sat watching the screen for a long time but the bird didn't come back at all for the rest of the day. I was worried I may have frightened her off.....

The next day I set the camera to record any activity and was delighted to see Bella (as I now call her) carrying materials to the box.

This is the first video of her in the box at 8.30 am...

To be continued......