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Luvachicken

Blue Tit dilemma

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I am lucky enough to have Great Tit cam and Blue Tit cam :D

 

Today I spied on Mrs Blue Tit who didn't seem to know whether to keep the chicks warm or do some DIY on the hole :?

I watched for a while and when she came outside she didn't seem to have much tail - so I thought something must have caught her - she fiddled and pecked, then sat on the eggs, then fiddled and pecked again and so it went on. I think her tail was somehow folded.

 

We had a Blue Tit once before who wasn't a very good mother so I assumed she might be the same.

I popped out for a bit and came back to see she was still faffing about.

But then I looked more closely and could see she was clearly stuck - she couldn't get out of the box, only onto the outside.

From the camera I could see a thread and the more she pulled on the outside the more you could see it pulling the nest on the inside.

I quickly got hubby to get a ladder so I could climb up and cut her free. I managed to hold her gently and could just see the thread in the hole which I carefully snipped. Then I let her go.

 

She flew off for ages - a bit hungry I'd imagine - and then finally came back.

 

She warmed up the chicks and then Mr Blue Tit came who clumsily moved the rest of the thread into a dangerous position. She kept twiddling around and all I could see was this thread causing more damage.

 

I waited for her to leave and hubby got the box down really quickly, I pulled the thread as tight as I could and then snipped that off too. It was pretty long and very wiry and I'm so glad I got it all out.

 

I had a tiny peak at the 2 babies that hatched yesterday - so pink and teeny and deep down in the nest - then the box went straight back up. It only took seconds and Mrs Blue Tit came back soon after.

 

I'm so glad I was in today to check on them.

It would have been horrible if she had been tangled all day in the cold and the rain.

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I do feel like a new parent :lol:

They do make me anxious and I feel sad when they leave.

On our tree in the front garden where the Great Tits nest, we have wrapped those spiky fence things around our tree to stop the cat climbing up it - works brilliantly.

I will do anything to help my little birds.

 

Just checked the camera and Mrs Blue Tit is safely tucked up with her babies :dance:

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Funny Mrs Blue Tit :?

I went to the local fishing tackle shop and bought some undyed maggots :vom:

I got loads for £3.70 with a nice fishing container to keep them in.

I popped them on the bird table in a dish, she spotted them, took one for herself to eat, had a bath in our pond and then went back to the chicks.

She's not fed them one as yet :shock:

Perhaps they are still too big for her tiny chicks.

They are not as creepy or ugly as mealworms so a bit easier to handle - with an old spoon of course - not my fingers.

No sign of Mr Blue Tit at all :(

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Mrs Blue Tit still has 2 chicks although one is a lot bigger than the other.

She seems to feed the maggots sideways to the chicks who then can't eat them so she eats it instead :?

I haven't got that many left now, they are starting to turn into brown hard things :vom: so I will have to get some more for her tomorrow.

 

Millie-Annie, I know what your husband means about worry and stuff, but it is so sweet to be able to watch them do the nest, to see the eggs - I did get to see one hatch this time, and to see how fast the chicks grow from wriggly, alien shapes to chubby baby birds.

I wouldn't be without my cameras :D

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Mrs Blue Tit and her 2 chicks are doing well on a diet of maggots :D

 

Sadly it seems Mrs Great Tit has also become a single mother of 8 :(

I have not seen the male for a couple of days.

Luckily her chicks are a week older and almost ready to leave the box, although I'm not sure how she will look after them then.

 

They have both been topping up their chicks with the maggots but earlier this afternoon they had the most massive fight.

I had been doing something indoors and then could hear a load of squawking. I looked around for the baby Great Tits, thinking maybe they had left the box when I had my back turned, but there were the 2 grown ups having a fight.

They were squawking at each other and had each other pinned on the grass - with the Blue Tit looking the worst off - pecking each other.

It was quite vicious :( I managed to open the window and they both flew off but have been bombing each other for the rest of the time.

 

I have put another feeder out with some extra maggots and hope that now there is enough for everyone.

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It's like a bird version of EastEnders. :shock: I was revited. Brave lady with those maggots. Gross :vom: dead mealworms are as much as I can cope with.

 

The maggots aren't too bad :vom:

I think the mealworms are worse because they have legs and make that horrible scratchy noise when they are moving.

The maggots are a bit smelly though and they never seem to sleep. They trundle around the dish non stop and are still crawling now.

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Today I checked the Blue Tit nest camera and the older chick has left the nest leaving the younger one behind.

The mum has been to feed it and then goes away for quite a while - hopefully to feed the other one - then she comes back.

The little one looks quite lonely on it's own :(

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