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Friday 31 December 2010

Event Timeline 2010

EVENT TIMELINE - GREAT TIT PAIR IN NESTING BOX #2
2010.06.16- Hatchling 7
2010.06.15- Hatchlings 5 & 6
2010.06.14- Hatchlings 1 - 4
...
2010.05.30- 3rd egg laid (?!)
2010.05.29 - 2nd egg laid (?!)
2010.05.28 - 1st egg laid
2010.05.21-28 - nest building

(due to a number of reasons the event timeline for
NB-2 was not complete in 2010)

EVENT TIMELINE - GREAT TIT PAIR IN NESTING BOX #1
2010.06.13 - 7 Hatchlings left the nest!
2010.05.26 - Hatchling 8
2010.05.25 - Hatchling 7
2010.05.24 - Hatchlings 4,5, and 6
2010.05.23 - Hatchlings 1,2, and 3
2010.05.15-19 - brooding
2010.05.14 - 11th egg laid & brooding
2010.05.13 - 10th egg laid & brooding
2010.05.12 - 9th egg laid & brooding
2010.05.11 - 8th egg laid & brooding
2010.05.10 - 7th egg laid
2010.05.09 - 6th egg laid & minor nest building
2010.05.08- 5th egg laid & minor nest building
2010.05.07 - 4th egg laid & minor nest building
2010.05.06 - 3rd egg laid & significant nest building
2010.05.05 - 2nd egg laid & significant nest building
2010.05.04 - 1st egg laid & significant nest building
2010.05.03 - nest building
2010.05.02 - nest building
2010.05.01 - multiple visits & nest building begins
2010.04.30 - multiple visits

Saturday 9 October 2010

Autumn has begun!

Today after a month of holiday, I reinstalled the bird-big-brother system :-)





Autumn has begun. The nights are getting increasingly colder. In each of the two nesting boxes a small Great Tit is sleeping.

Thursday 1 July 2010

JUmpy Birdies!

....I was looking through the emails of the past hour to see if anything had happened in box #2. It is really hot and I was wondering how the birdies are coping....and then I almost fell off my chair....



I could only see 4 birdies!!!!

I thought: time to eat, forget eating, drive home!...No it cannot be, they are just JUmpy and are flying around in the box and looking out a bit, nothing more....BUT I can see only 4?!!!!???!!!

Okay, be patient, wait 2 more minutes, I thought...ahhh...



5 tails...I am counting tails now.

Indeed the last few days before departure the birdies in box #1 were really JUmpY.

I am expecting them to fly out on Sunday the latest. I hope they do not fly out before Saturday morning! Also, I do not expect them all to fly out at the same time. As posted previously 1 of the 5 is a bit behind development-wise and I think it will need a full extra day.

ooooohhhhh!

Wednesday 30 June 2010

Spectrograms...

Some of you may recall that I looked into the frequencies of the Great Tit, Blue Tit and of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Here below is the spectrogram of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (click to enlarge!)...



The upper image shows the wave form. The lower images indicates which frequencies were associated with the greatest intensities and their evolution over time (y-axis: frequency, x-axis: time, colour map: intensity with blue = max intensity, yellow = min low intensity) ....so the bird sang at mostly only one frequency.

Now compare to the images below...this is the "voice" of another animal...intensities are spread over a wider range of frequencies and the frequencies at which this animal expresses itself decrease with time (again: click to enlarge!)...



any guesses?

Hot!

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Sleepy



The birdies are growing and growing and growing. I expect they will be flying out in about 1 week. I do not know if it is just me, but the 5th hatchling does not look quite as healthy, it is not just the fewer feathers. Still I think it has good chances.

I was quite lucky a couple of days ago: I saw ca. 4 of the hatchlings from the 1st batch. They were on the northern balcony making hatchling calls. Mother bird was still feeding them....it has been 2 weeks!! They still look very much like young birds. Their colours are not those of the adult birds yet: they are mostly yellow and black and lack the white feathers on their heads. I noticed that their flying and landing is now quite smooth.

Another side note: I had prepared a scrambled egg to help mother and father bird feed their offspring in box #2. Other bird-friends have claimed that mother and father birds around Germany made good use of the scrambled egg and fed them. Well my Great Tit parent-pair just ignored the egg. Sparrows instead showed a great interest and started feeding. I noticed one female bird act like a "hamster". She tried so hard to fill her beak with as many pieces as possible with the funny side-effect that she would pick one piece up and a couple of other would fall out of her beak. After a couple of minutes and a beak-full of egg she would fly away. I have some pictures that I will post soon.

Monday 28 June 2010

Birdy-Look

The hatchlings are growing at an amazing rate...

Sunday 27 June 2010

Only 5 Left.

Yesterday morning the 6th hatchling lay dead in the nest. After much hesitation and pondering I opened the nesting box and removed the dead hatchling. I also removed the one that had previously died and that had disappeared from sight. The smell was horrible. The little 5 birds were really silent and still. The one that already could see, made itself as small as possible whilst looking at me with its eyes wide open. Their colours are really intense, black and yellow feathers and a very pink (dark pink) skin...(next year I NEED a colour camera!).

Status this morning:



Of the remaining 5, 4 are about the same (growth-wise), the 5th is a bit smaller and has fewer feathers.

Friday 25 June 2010

Hungry!!!

Body Plumage

In this picture one can see too things, firstly that most hatchlings are developing body plumage: the lighter coloured feathers which are now only slightly visible at the back of their heads. These will keep the birds warm (sole purpose of plumage).



The other thing is that one hatchling is not as developed as the others (right most head), and that the head count stops at 6. Unfortunately one hatchling has not made it and I am hoping that the 6th and youngest hatchling will not share its fate. It is so difficult to observe such things. A picture does not show much. It hurts every time when watching the live stream and seeing that the little one gets pushed around and does not manage to make its way to the top to get food. But one must remember that intervention does not solve anything. On the bright side though it did manage to get a huge spider last night and I was so happy to see the little featherless head this morning!

Thursday 24 June 2010

Eyes Opening!!!



and feathers growing on breast...


Motherly Check-up



Last night, I noticed that the eyes of two of the hatchlings are slowly opening. One could see small black slits! :-)

Monday 21 June 2010

Friday 18 June 2010

Feeding on a Sunny Friday Afternoon

when the sun shines, this second camera seems to be able to in part function as a colour camera...



I will have to find another solution for next year however, as it is not quite the level of colour I was hoping for!

Feathers...

As the second lot of hatchlings grow...the cycle repeats itself with precision...



...clockwork...

Thursday 17 June 2010

Videos of Hatchlings Last Day in Box #1

General agitation in nest:



Feeding by both mother and father birds:



Hatchlings 1-6 leave nest:

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Number 6!



Mother and Father

Removal of Nest (Box #1)

Last night I opened nesting box #1 and removed the nest. I obviously examined it as I was curious to know exactly how many eggs had hatched. To my surprise and sadness, I found only one egg. This means that of 11 eggs, 10 hatched and 3 hatchlings died. I had noticed 2 but not 3. I also found a very dry dead hatchling in the nest which I removed and buried.

I must say it was not pleasant in the least, both visually as well as in terms of odour.

I then threw the nest away and cleaned and disinfected (clearly necessary for a number of reasons including the need to kill off any flees which might otherwise have developed and procreated so much as to infest a potential next nest and kill the hatchlings) the nesting box, left it open (the front of the box can be removed in the models I use) overnight to dry and closed it this morning just in case....

Fifth Hatchling

3:44 am this morning...

Monday 14 June 2010

Fourth Hatchling!



Third Hatchling!

Quick Update!

Last night, at ca. 20:45 all 7 hatchlings left the nest (nesting box #1), this morning at ca. 6:30 2 eggs hatched in nesting box #2.



Mother and father are now busy keeping them warm and feeding them.



I will post images and videos of nesting box #1 soon!

Aaaah...the wonders of nature and life!

Thursday 3 June 2010

7 Eggs in Nesting Box #2




unfortunately no update for nesting box #1...ah!

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Brooding in Nesting Box #2 and Developments in Box #1

Brooding has begun (not too seriously...pretty much like in box #1), with 6 eggs. I wonder if more will come.



In box #1 feeding continues. The weather is gray so the hatchlings are huddling again. It is difficult to tell how many they are but I have a feeling that only 7 are there. Hopefully I am mistaken.

I will be away for a while, so unless the semi-"live" stream starts working again, I am afraid this blog will be silent for a few days.

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Feather, feathers!!!

As the live stream is not working for some reason...here some images from today!





Sunday 30 May 2010

Huddling

The weather is not that great today, and the hatchlings are huddeled together, which is good. It rains a bit then stops but it is generally cloudy and windy with temperatures around 16°C, which is good.



Apparently it will be really sunny and hot next week, which I am not that happy about. Hopefully the temperatures inside the nesting boxes will not rise too much. I am considering building a roof extension for box #1 and a roof for box #2.

In the video below the female Great Tit is checking to see whether there is anything to be removed inside the nest (underneath the hatchlings). She did the same whilst brooding so as to turn the eggs around every max. 30 min....now she is just keeping the nest clean.

Saturday 29 May 2010

Buzzing with Energy

...in Nesting box #1 calm moments are interrupted by energy bursts...



(I apologise for the background noise...this is not the normal software I use to record with but it allows me to record and post immediately, rather than wait, postprocess, cut,....!)

Feathers...



It is so difficult to count the mouths. This morning I thought I had seen only 7 and was sad for the smallest one, which I thought had not made it. Now I count 8 mouths, so either there were 9 before or 8 all the time....I guess we will find out by counting the eggs left once all the small ones have left the nest in ca. 2 weeks. At any rate...here are two videos from this morning...





Tomorrow, the oldest 3 will be one week old, and if I read correctly, their eyes should open.

Friday 28 May 2010

Sleeping Tight...

Both mothers are sleeping tight...

Nesting box #1:



Nesting box #2:



...well actually , in nesting box #1 sleeping is not that easy when sitting on 8 hatchlings which seldom stay put!!

Oh!!!!!

Whilst in the first nesting box the hatchlings are growing steadily and have now sprouted small tiny feathers (I will post an image later)....nesting box #2 has also seen drammatic changes occuring in it....



An egg!!!!!!!!

A Great Tit Pair had started showing interest in the 2nd nesting box ca. 1 week ago and I had seen a female carrying nesting material inside the box. I however thought that she might have lost interest in the box as she did show considerable interest in nesting box #1 and its content. I have seen her linger around in the garden and also frequently saw her mate hopping about on the roof of nesting box #2 (I thought he might be trying to attract her attention back to their originally nesting location).

I unfortunately do not have the equipment to save both video streams so I am afraid nesting box #2 will have to wait another 2 weeks ca. By then the hatchlings of box #1 should be ready to explore the world and the second female Great Tit will have ca. another week and a half to go of brooding. I am excited and hope that all goes well!

I will check later to see if the second female will sleep on her first egg just as the first female did.

Thursday 27 May 2010

Sun Protection: Roof

As already mentioned, I added a small roof to avoid sun directly hitting the nesting box. I read a very interesting paper about the temperature which hatchlings can cope with as a function of age (3, 6,,...days old) and of number (3, 6, ... hatchlings). To avoid the temperature rising too much (the sun shines onto the nesting box between 12:30 and 16:15 pm. ca.), I constructed the roof and mounted it in what was a race against time or rather against the weather. I was totally nackered but happy when finally last night I could admire my work.



Some people were concerned that the birds would not like me moving around the box...well mother bird was sitting in the nesting box whilst I was working outside...

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Parent Flight Upon Leaving the Nesting Box

The picture I posted on the 25th, arose some attention, so I thought I should post the other pictures I took of the same kind: female and male bird leaving the nesting box...


















I hope you enjoy these pictures just as much as I enjoyed taking them....oh and please note that this was not my only entry today (in case you just popped in) I finally posted videos of the young hatchlings!