Things must be nearing completion and today she started bringing in the wool that we collected.
STILL a lot more moss and other material being brought in but it’s clear that the nest cup is getting a wool lining.
Courtship Feeding
Before the male entered (not shown here) the hen was clearly calling while sat in the nest cup. We think the basic structure is now complete and wonder whether this happens with other pairs. Something to watch out for in future years.
This is the only time this has happened inside this box this year so far. There will have been quite a bit of this going on outside the box as the pair continue to bond and the male supplements the female’s diet. She will be producing an egg weighing about 1g every day. Her own body weight is about 10g and she may lay up to 14 eggs.
Day 4 nest building
The nest definitely getting much more of a structure now, still its of moss and grass being brought in. Quite a bit of finer, hair-like, material being brought in which is clearly holding things together. Most of the building effort appearing to be done by getting in the nest cup and pushing outwards. Perhaps this bird won’t do the jumping up and down bit.
All of the wool we collected in the fields has been taken by other birds. Off to get some more!
Day 3 of nest building and it’s getting very full
Starting to worry that this bird is being too successful at gathering materials – maybe making such an easy supply was a bad idea? There is a lot of material going up towards the hole on the left of the picture and the nest cup is starting to become more obvious. In to 2017 there was quite a lot of jumping up and down on the nest as it neared completion so maybe that will happen…
If this carries on she’ll be banging her head on the camera.
48 hours after taking over
Things moving on very fast. A number of large pieces that look like bits of wood (could be planed off the end of fence panels as one of the neighbours has been repairing his fence). Hoping that it’s not got any nasty chemicals in it. It looks odd but I suspect it will end up giving the nest a bit more structure when it’s covered up.
Planning to collect some wool from field boundaries on our next walks as the nest looking pretty full.
New hen building
24 hours (or so) later a great deal more building has happened. Compare the cap on this bird with the New Bird in the Box which we think is the male that evicted the previous female (see her here).
Anna came through with a name – Milly (which coincidentally is the name I would have used myself!)
A New Bird in the Box
A few hours later this bird enters the nest box. It has spent some time on the outside of the box pecking around the hole before finally coming in. This bird has a distinctly different cap with a very wide gap on the back right of its cap and a far less pointed front.
We are pretty sure that this is a more dominant male that has evicted the previous hen so he can move his own mate in. It (he) doesn’t do any of the typical chest rubbing or nest cup wriggling behaviour.
Defending the box
With all the nesting material pushed behind her and her tail spread she tries to make herself look bigger to put off the blue tit on the outside of the box looking in through the hole. This carries on for about 20 minutes before she eventually leaves.
For reference have a look at her cap. It’s got a pale pointed area at the front and looks like it almost joins to the dark ring around her neck on one side at the back. This is how we differentiate the birds that visit and how we know that this is the last we see of this hen.
Progress the next day but things about to go wrong
A reasonable amount of material has now been brought in but we’re seeing another pair of blue tits around the box quite a lot.
First nest material starts to arrive
It’s getting slightly late in the year to be starting a nest, the blossom is out on the fruit trees and the weather has suddenly turned quite warm. I have scarified the lawn and put a load of moss and grass in a couple of bird feeders that turned out not to be squirrel proof to try and make the process a bit quicker.
As in 2017 we have started to think a name is needed for this bird and so my my niece Anna has been asked to come up with one. Last time (2017) Sophie named the hen Lily.