Oh well....

Today I am depressed. Nothing new has happened. The pair of Great Tits is still interested in the nesting box, visiting every day, but no progress has been really made. An occasional sparrow is seen, but that is also about it.

I have noticed that most other observers have reported at least one egg...which makes my positive hopes sink to become negative ones....

The only thing one can say, is that the weather has been really bad. It rained all day yesterday and on top of that is was cold. Today the sky is covered, but at least it has not yet rained.

http://www.yr.no/place/Germany/Baden-Württemberg/Widdern,_Stadt/long.html

...apparently it is going to improve.......hopes are the last to die, so maybe, just maybe something might have happened in the nesting boxes today....

Nesting Off and On...

While nothing has happened in nesting box #1, nesting box #2 has seen increased activity....(sound is back!)



The weather is still not very pleasant, but it should get better tomorrow... expectations are... great... which, as Dickens pointed out, might not be such a good thing.

...I thought I might post a picture unrelated to my little project but related to nesting....



The church facade in Schöntal was home to at least 10 such nests!

Nesting Has Begun in Box #2???

I am happy to announce that the Great Tit Pair made their first contribution to the nest in box #2 on Saturday, as the video below shows (unfortunately without sound for some reason...).



Nothing happened on Sunday (I must admitt though that I did get up late and that the birds did visit before...but not after...I started recording...deduction made from the fact that the last recorded image of Saturday and the first of Sunday are different).

The weather was grim to say the least and it is cold again (4 miserable degrees this morning and rainy), so I wonder if nest building will continue or not.

On Sunday a solitary Sparrow visited nesting box #1 serveral times but that was about it.

At any rate, observing these little creatures is relaxing and fills me with awe :-).

More Nesting Box #2 Visiting

The Great Tit pair visited the nesting box a couple of times again yesterday morning..



...but so far no sign has been given as to them deciding to move in this season...


In the meantime a Sparrow entered box #1 and fixed around a bit. This morning at around 7:30 a solitary Sparrow perched on the wooden fence, waited around a bit, fluffed its feathers up, waited some more and then flew off.

Great Tit Pair Examining Nesting Box #2

Yesterday a pair of Great Tits examined nesting box #2 extensively...

(video snapshot)



This morning when I looked outside, I noticed one Great Tit flying out of the box. I sat down and waited. A pair of Great Tits came back and while one was waiting on the fence the other entered again.

In the meantime in nesting box #1, a Sparrow has already paid some visits this morning...

Eurasian Tree Sparrow Visits Again!

Alas, the sparrow has come back to visit. I am really happy.
I had already noticed one lingering in the tree early this morning, chirping happily.



you can hardly tell it is in there, but it is!!! If you don't believe me....there a somewhat out of focus snapshot of the bird entering...



..and here another...

Post-Easter Status

During Easter not much happened. The Eurasian Tree Sparrow visited nesting box #1 only once prior to Easter and never during the long weekend. I had already noticed that they hardly ever went to the box during weekends, so it might just be that the intense activity inside the house during Easter stopped the birds from lingering too long in the vicinity of the nest. I however fear that the nesting box has been abandoned for some reason.

The second nesting box was also more or less ignored until yesterday when a pair of Great Tits examined it on the outside a couple of times. This morning more examining was done and indeed the motion detection software recorded a few snapshots of Great Tits inside nesting box #2 between 7:30 and 8:15.





Whilst having breakfast, I noticed four Great Tits perched on the Tree in close vicinity of each other. Suddenly a fight broke out. It was not a serious fight, but one pair was clearly chasing the other. Nesting box #2 is clearly interesting. Some 30 minutes later a pair of Great Tits was perched on the wooden fence close to box #2. One waited whilst the other flew in.

I thus decided to send the signal coming from nesting box #1 to the video server to detect any motion in case the Eurasian Tree Sparrows come back and to record the signal coming from nesting box #2 in case the Great Tits decide to build a nest in it.

I am eager to go home and see what has happened....