Our bluetits are already searching the reserve’s oak trees for nesting sites.
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Nesting
At this time of year, the reserve’s blue tits are building nests in holes in our old trees. The ash tree at Fiveways harbours a nest every year and the fenced oak near the bottom of the Arboretum seems to have attracted more than one pair already.
Here is a video of a female blue tit building a nest while, outside, the male guards the site from marauders and thieves.
Video from The Nest Box
Header picture by Simon Knight
Winter blue tits
During the winter, in natural woodlands, blue tits spend most of their time in oaks, searching for insect food in the trees’ rich ecosystems. But at this time of year they turn their attention to the midges, mites and wasps that come to lay eggs in the new leaf buds.
Read more
Nesting
At this time of year, the reserve’s blue tits are looking for nest holes in our old trees. The ash tree at Fiveways harbours a nest every year and the newly fenced oak near at the bottom of the Arboretum seems to have attracted more than one pair already.
Here is a video of a female blue tit building a nest while, outside, the male guards the site from marauders and thieves.
Video from The Nest Box
Header picture by Simon Knight
Blue tit
by Simon Knight
Along with everything else going on in the world, I was beginning to find the recent dull weather slightly depressing. I have also found it frustrating from a photography point of view, as I only like to take pictures in good light, and you don’t get good light without the sun! The recent dullness has been especially frustrating as I have had a new lens to test which needs good light for me to be able to get the best out of it.Â
Continue readingWorld record blue tit
In Britain, the maximum recorded age of a blue tit is 10 years and 3 months but the world record is 11 years and 7 months.
All pictures taken in the park by DKG
A gallery of blue tits.
A blue tit feeding in an oak tree, photographed last March by DKG
Blue tit babies
The pair of blue tits that DKG has been watching are very busy feeding green winter moth caterpillars to their young.
Here are more posts about this nest:
Blue tit update
Has our blue tits’ nest been abandoned?
Late frost
There was a frost on Saturday night.
Continue reading “Late frost”Blue tit update
by DKG
A couple of poor quality photos of the blue tit entering (above) and leaving (below) the nest early this morning. The pictures are not very sharp , the bird appeared and disappeared so quickly and I forgot the tripod again.
I think it’s the cock bird feeding the hen; the visits were not frequent but at least the birds are still present and hopefully doing well.
2016’s blue tit nest
While our female blue tit incubates her eggs and the male visits to feed her, here is a look back to 2016 when DKG staked out another nest in a different oak tree.
All the pictures are by DKG
Below is the full story of this year’s nest:
The blue tits have been seen at their nest. There was a message from DKG yesterday afternoon:
Continue readingWhat has happened to the blue tits?
Either we have misread the blue tits’ timetable or the nest has been abandoned. During his last two visits to the nest site, DKG has not seen the birds at all.
Continue reading “What has happened to the blue tits?”Blue tits
A message and pictures from DKG.
Click here for the rest of the storyLatest blue tit news
A message from DKG during the week
A long stay observing and photographing the Blue Tits. I am certain they have young. They were both frantically entering and leaving the nest all the time I was there. Still no sightings of the Green Woodpeckers but I did see a Great Spotted Woodpecker, although I was not quick enough to get any photos.
Click on any picture to open the gallery
Battle in a nest box
By Barbara Johnson
We have two nest-boxes, one either side of our garden. One with a smaller hole, just for blue tits, the other with a larger hole to accommodate great tits, sparrows etc.
Read on for the rest of Barbara’s story
Winter blue tits
During the winter, in natural woodlands, blue tits spend most of their time in oaks, searching for insect food in the trees’ rich ecosystems. At this time of year they turn their attention to the midges, mites and wasps that come to lay eggs in the new leaf buds.
Read morePop goes the Weasel
Hats and scarves was the order of the day for Wednesday’s work party, and hedges and ditches, out of the east wind, were the best places to spend the morning. The park, however, was getting on with spring to an accompaniment of birdsong.
Trish saw a weasel hunting through the hedge; it ran across the picnic place and the track and into the brambles. Low down in the brambles, beyond the reach of Dave’s camera, we found a long-tailed tits’ nest, half-built: a ball of moss, hair and lichen, lined with downy feathers. A weasel is dangerous company for breeding birds; it will take eggs and nestlings, particularly if it is feeding its own nestful of young.
Long-tailed tit nest.
Bluetits trying out nest holes.
Robin singing
Great tit calling
Great spotted woodpecker
Green woodpecker in flight
While we drank coffee and ate home made cakes, a pair of blue tits were trying out nest holes in the very highest branches of the ash tree at Fiveways. In the oaks, above us, robins and great tits shouted loud territorial challenges at each other.
A great spotted woodpecker worked its way up the trunk of an oak tree in the hedge between Cornfield and Sleeper Field, and three green woodpeckers flew overhead towards the copse in Sheep Field. The blackthorn is in flower, primroses seem to be ignoring the arctic start to their growing season, and leaf buds are swelling on the trees. Ian says there is frogspawn in the little pond!
Blackthorn blossom
Primrose
Frogspawn
It’s such a pleasure to work in the park on a spring day.
Pictures: Google Images
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 