The 2012 Nestbox Diary

Family commitments mean that while it is very unlikely that I will be able to maintain anything like detailed diaries this year, with the first of my grand-children reaching an age when she can appreciate what she is watching I cannot let the nesting season slip past without sharing the enjoyment and surprises with her. So here goes .....

First of all, a quick look at the cameras in use at this moment. To begin with I'm using three four-camera multiplexers, and this image involves two of them.

Starting top-left is the Blue/Great Tit box, and to the right is a camera pointing at a spot on the roof of that box where a Blackbird attempted to nest last year - you never know what might turn up.

The bottom-right image is from our security camera (really a sharp image!). In addition to watching over our parking spaces it also offers a look at the night-time activities of local foxes. The final set of four images (via a multiplexer in the loft) is from the House Martin nests, sadly unused by the Martins over the last few years.

The second group of cameras concentrate on the Swift boxes. The top pair of images are from the boxes at the front of our shared driveway, and the bottom pair are from the boxes at the rear end of the drive.

Swifts have used SW(up) since 2009, SW(le) since 2010 and SW(ri) for the first time in 2011.

While Sparrows have always been interested in the boxes, previously they have only nested in SW(up), being ousted when the Swifts arrive. This year that box has been ignored (so far) and they have moved into SW(le) instead.

They are working on the nest today, although they seem to have finished taking in large twigs and are now padding out the nest cup, with lots of shuffling going on.

Time is not on their side. With the first Swifts likely to appear overhead around 25 April they may have just a month to complete their nesting. If they could start egg-laying tomorrow and have just three eggs they would then need around eleven days for incubation, with another 13-15 days before the youngsters fledge - around 24-25 April!

It should be pointed out that in 2011 while we first saw the Swifts on 25 April it wasn't until 3 May that a Swift actually entered a nest box here, so the Sparrows may have a little bit of leeway - fingers crossed.

28 March - As the warm weather continues (see garden diary) bird activity in the garden has been at a low level. However, I have two interesting developments to report on today.

The first is a suggestion that something has visited the Blue/Great Tit box today. At the moment here isn't continuous monitoring of that box, but I do have in place a few straw 'trip wires' in the floor of the box, and these have been moved since yesterday.

I will be watching out for further indicators there.

The other development concerns the Sparrows and Swifts dilemma . The nesting pair have been far less active in the box today, being away from it for much of the day, behaviour I'm more accustomed to see when egg laying is underway. So with no Sparrows at all in sight in the garden, this afternoon I headed up my ladder to take my one and only look in the box during this nesting period,

and there were two eggs - it was almost as though they'd read my previous entry and followed my advice! The nest cup is little more than a few feathers scattered on the floor of the box.

Now that egg laying is underway it means that there is a good chance that the pair can raise the clutch successfully before there is any danger from the arrival of the Swifts.

If that is the case I may also get the opportunity to remove the tangle of twigs ready for the Swifts.

As far as the webcam is concerned, as I feared there is no chance that the eggs and then the young chicks will be visible over the next couple of weeks, so it will be a case of watching the comings and goings of the parents until the later stages of the chicks' development.

Onto this webcam image I've added a simple indication of where the nest cup is situated.

At the end of what has been the warmest day so far (with the temperature in excess of 21C for much of the afternoon) the female made her return to the nest at around 6.15pm.

To end the day (perhaps) this pair of Sparrows seem to have settled for the night in SW(up)

Strange - I've just gone through the recording made through the afternoon and evening and it appears that this is the pair that are nesting in SW(le).

As I said above, the female returned to SW(le) at 6.15pm. After nearly five minutes out of sight in the nest itself she then spent several minutes looking out before leaving at 6.24pm. She returned nineteen minutes later and spent just two minutes in the nest before heading out once more. When she returned at 6.59pm the male was already in SW(up), but she disappeared into the nest for a further twenty minutes. She then spent a few minutes looking out from around 7.20pm, at the same time that the male was looking out. Then she disappeared back into the nest cup where she was obviously very busy for a couple of minutes before she finally left SW(le) at 7.26pm and joined the male in SW(up).

Looking back at this morning's recording I see that a male Sparrow (the same one?) spent last night in SW(up), leaving at 6.40am, before the female entered SW(le) at 6.44am. The recording started at 5am so this suggests that the box was unoccupied last night as well. The male visited briefly at 6.45am before returning to SW(up).

I have set up the recorder to cover the quad swift box image tomorrow morning (this time from 4am). However, it is likely that I will have a chance to to look at the recording, let alone write up the diary for the next couple of days.

29 March - A follow-up to last night's confusion. During the night the pair didn't move from the positions seen in that last image, but at 6.45am the female (nearest the camera) woke up and headed out of the box, her partner following two minutes later.

At 6.51am the female made a silent entry into SW(le), heading straight into the nest cup. In contrast, when the male entered some three minutes later the whole world could have heard his chirping!

That the pair  left the eggs unattended overnight is a surprise to me, and I'll be interested to see if that happens again tonight. I would expect that once egg-laying is completed the female will remain in the nest.

As I write this at 9.15am I have just seen the male bringing in a beakful of soft nesting material, both birds having been busy building up the nest cup over the last half hour or so - the female has brought more in.

A quick look through the day's recordings show that there were only occasional visits. This evening it was approaching 7pm when the male made his first appearance in SW(up). Over the next twenty minutes there was increased activity with the female visiting both her nest and SW(up).

It was 7.21pm when the male finally entered SW(up) for the night, and when his partner appeared three minutes later it was to return to her nest rather than join him.

These images were captured just before 8pm. You should just be able to make out the female's tail in the middle of the right-hand image.

Today's lack of incubation behaviour strongly suggests that a third egg has been laid, with another expected tomorrow. Sparrows usually lay 3 - 5 eggs, but as I'll not be taking another look I will have to rely on the female's behaviour over the next few days for an indication of the final total.

30 March - Incubation has begun.

I will amend this entry later, after I've looked through the morning's recordings, but this afternoon it is obvious that the female has started the incubation of her eggs.

Assuming that she laid another egg this morning she should now be sitting on four eggs.

 These should hatch 11-13 April (after 12-14 days), with the chicks fledging around 28 April (after about 15 days). Which should enable the brood to leave before the Swifts arrive.

It seems that the movement north of the Swifts is well and truly underway now, with sightings in Rome, Italy today. I shall be watching reports of their progress across Europe with great interest.

The male is once again in SW(up) tonight. It looks as if this will be his regular roost during the nesting process.

Turning my attention to the Blue/Great Tit box, more movement of the straw indicated that it had been visited yesterday morning. Looking through the recording has confirmed this, but as the picture shows, on this occasion the visitor  was not a bird but a wasp queen.

The wait goes on....