Thursday, 20 June 2013
Nest Boxes and Bearded Tits Do Better
Since my last post, which reported lower numbers and some deaths among early broods things have improved substantially. The weather has been kind with a warm dry spell and this has certainly helped. Both Great and especially Blue Tits have good broods and many are now fledging. There has been no further loss of young despite the lateness of the season. The only exception is one brood taken by Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Last year we had 5 woodpeckered. With broods being well fed they are not calling and so are not attracting the attention of woodpeckers. Pied Flycatchers have also done well and my impression is that young birds have grown quickly this season.
Kevin Briggs who is studying the caterpillars in a Lune valley woodland reports that numbers for the last three weeks have been very high and this has coincided with the period when the young are in the nest. Hence the good results detailed above
A Great Tit nest in Whittington woods is most unusual, on May 28th it had 5 cold eggs, by June 6 it had 8 warm eggs which had hatched by June 14h but there were also 7 eggs and by June 20th it had increased to 8 eggs and there were still 8 young. Two birds laying in the same box ?
At Leighton Moss RSPB we have just started this years catching of young birds as part of our long running study of this species. In 2012 with poor weather and high water levels we had a very poor season with only 17 young caught . Already this year we have caught 15 juveniles and ringed 21 nestlings so things are looking much better and July is usually the best month for catching Bearded Tits. Sightings of the colour ringed adults suggest that survival over the winter has been exceptionally good.
John
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2 comments:
You are not kidding re-Pied Flycatchers growing quickly. Nearly missed one brood after a routine check at 7 days old!
One noticeable feature with the later nests has been the difficulty in catching the male Pied Flycatchers. The young have been growing very well as indicated and observations suggest the males are either just "showboating" - singing and alarm calling around the box or have simply disappeared. I wonder if second feature is related to wing moult or both reasons could simply be due to the much better feeding conditions and the lack of any useful role for the male other than prancing about in the trees by the nestbox! Earlier males were a completely different ball-game with all of them caught in very quick succession as they shared the feeding - indeed all were caught attending the box before before the females.
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