Might be some early nest sitting going on.

Kess73

My regular robin paired had a female come into his territory over the X- Mas period.

It went pretty much along the usual lines. At first he tolerated her. Then she started following him everywhere in the garden. Then she started begging from him, and finally he started to court her by bringing her food.

She started to pay a lot of attention to a spot where I have robin nest box near the end of my garden. The box is impossible to see as it is under fairly heavy cover, but I saw her going in and out and in and out of the same spot with various bits of twigs, moss etc being brought in.

Since Friday her visits to the window sill with the male have lessened in number, and the male started feeding at the windowsill alone more often, and then carrying off mealworm in his beak and going straight for the spot the nest box is in.

Today he has upped his routine and I have been watching him zip around the garden carrying food to that spot, and just before I started this post he came to the window and I decided to pop a few waxworm rather than mealworm out for this visit and he kept loading up until he had four in his beak and off he went to the nest box site.


Fingers crossed that in 4 to 6 weeks I might get to see my garden's first batch of 2012 robins.:)

mgwhelan

Do you check nests you find to see what stage there at say been build, eggs or chicks?

Kess73

No I never check to see what stage there are at save for what I can guesstimate from a distance.

Once I think there is a nest situation, be it at the build, laying, sitting or feeding stage, I give that spot as wide a berth as I can.

Cork boy 55

same here robins have paired up in my garden and are inseparable
Its odd my recollection of robins is they spend most of the year on their
own.



I have seen starlings gathering stuff for nests i assume.

And the blackbirds are hanging out a lot where they usual nest every year

magicbastarder

was in blessington basin this morning, and there was a very young looking brood of ducklings in the reservoir.

E39MSport

I think one of my BT boxes has build activity going on. Need to wire it up to confirm.

shawnee

Had blue tits in a nest box last year b ut haven't touched it since. Is it best to leave it and hope for the best or clean it out at this stage :rolleyes:

Kess73

shawnee wrote: »

Had blue tits in a nest box last year b ut haven't touched it since. Is it best to leave it and hope for the best or clean it out at this stage :rolleyes:

If it was used last year then it defo needs a good clean.

I tend to give all my nest boxes a good clean between breeding seasons, and I leave them up all winter in case they are needed for roosting.


If you are 100% the box has not been touched this season, then clean it asap so that it becomes a more attractive option (especially in terms of hygiene) for your birds

E39MSport

E39MSport wrote: »

I think one of my BT boxes has build activity going on. Need to wire it up to confirm.

No building but there's a pair visiting it regularly and they are very skittish.

There's also a bird roosting in it overnight now. This may be the new female?

Kess73

Spent a big chunk of today totally gutted. Both robins were in the garden nearest the house when the big female sprawk arrived. The female dived into a Pyracantha that I have near the house but the male stayed outside the plant and went to the same small tree as the hawk and started ticking madly at the hawk.

I grabbed a pair of runners and called Donar (my dog) as I was intent on getting involved, plus my male robin has often used me as a shield when I am outside at the same time as a predator. But as I pulled on the runners, the sprawk flushed him from the tree and the male robin took off and flew into the open away from the house and the sprawk lifted off and went after him at pace.

I went outside and could see nothing. I went down into the field and nothing.

Then about 20 minutes later the female was back on her own and she was making the "tweeee" call which is similar to what a hiding blackbird will make. She kept going to high points in the garden and calling out.

She is not quite as tame around me as Sturm so I left some food out for her and let her at it.

I pretty much spent the day looking outside and moping, and what I thought and muttered about the sprawk is not fit for this thread.

Then just after 17:30 I was outside again and I heard a low sub song. I saw a robin in the bush and held out my hand, more in a hope than expectation. He came like a little rocket, landed on my hand, then noticed there was no treat, gave me a fility look and went back to the bush. So I went straight to my bird supplies and brought out some waxworm instead of mealworm and gave him what he wanted.

I have no idea how he managed to escape the sprawk, but soon after that comeback the female was on the birdbath and he was taking food from me and flying to her to pop it into her beak. You can only imagine the big grin on my face.

He has even earned a name today thanks to his exploits. He is now Sturm the Robin, an aptly named garden buddy for Donar the dog.

shawnee

Wow great excitement for one day. While I admire the birds of prey myself, I would indeed be gutted to see them take away one of my friends. Must try and coax a few of those robins to feed like that, then again have a few cats lurking from the neighbours so that makes them wary. Well done on that tale , better than watching a wildlife program.:D

Birdnuts

shawnee wrote: »

Wow great excitement for one day. While I admire the birds of prey myself, I would indeed be gutted to see them take away one of my friends.

Best not to anthropomorphize individual birds - especcially species with an averge lifespan of just over a year;).


PS: Kess - I never had you down as such a softie:P:D;)

Kess73

Birdnuts wrote: »

Best not to anthropomorphize individual birds - especcially species with an averge lifespan of just over a year;).


PS: Kess - I never had you down as such a softie:P:D;)

I do that with my small birds that make it past the year mark. I have one blue tit that is heading towards his fifth summer with me and one blackbird, Blackie Yellowbeak, who is heading for the same landmark.

The bluetit, Shadow, will fly and land on me for his treats, and also comes into my computer room to me when the window is open and waits on the inner windowsill until he gets a waxworm. He will refuse mealworm when he comes indoors and will only accept waxworm. He also has a very distinctive mark on his right flank where he lost feathers when he was young ( most likely from an attack of some sort).

I also have a great tit, Ollie, who knocks on the window if my back is turned. He does so with his beak. He is a few years old at this point as well and he was a bit of a rescue case that I found in my garden three years ago after the parent bird he was with was killed by a hawk.

Most of my regulars don't have names nor do most get anthropomorphized by me, but there are always a select few that break that wall with me.


As for me being a softie, when it comes to animals I can be uber soft.

whyulittle

Even I'd hate to see a Robin, or any 'individual' bird taken.

Plenty of Chaffies and Greenies to feed on here.

Kess73

whyulittle wrote: »

Even I'd hate to see a Robin, or any 'individual' bird taken.

Plenty of Chaffies and Greenies to feed on here.

Yeah that comes into it with me as well. I hate to see a robin, Dunnock, wren etc get taken over one of the species that travel in larger numbers.

I know it is all just nature being nature, but sometimes it is hard not to let your own personal bias bubble to the surface.

E39MSport

Great stuff Kess73

Kess73

Have being trying to get somewhat in synch with the female sprawk's hunting patterns again this year as I have never been able to get a handle on her routine like I have managed to do with the male.

He is like clockwork in terms of the times of day he attacks at each month, and also with regards to how his hunting and ambush techniques change to suit a particular time of the year. Plus there is the fact that he is quite brazen when it comes to getting close to me whereas the female is very intolerent of me despite her being a regular on my land longer than the male.

But over the past three days two things caught my eye. The first was an actual pattern as to how she managed to get to the garden nearest the house without setting off the starling early warning system. The past three days I have spotted her coming in towards the garden at nearly the same time each day from the West, but unlike the male who comes in low and fast from the Southern end in the first half or the day, and the south west in the second half of the day, she makes her approach from a great height, flies slightly past the house and drops down very quickly in a corkscrew manner and then hits the garden from the east side of the house. Three days in a row she has done the same thing and almost the same time, so maybe I am starting to get a pattern that I can use with her.


The second thing I noticed, and I have mentioned this last year during the breeding season and also the year before, is co-operative hunting by the sprawks.I have seen them do it a number of times with jackdaws and it happened too often to be a coincidence, and yesterday I looked out the back and there were both sprawks, one at either side of a bush. The male would harry and beat at one side with his wings and the female would adjust her position at the other end to keep a starling pinned. They did this until each hawk had gained maybe a foot or two further into the bush, then the male forced his way in, the starling flew out on the female's side, and she had it hit within six feet of it leaving the bush. It was the first time I had seen them do it in that manner as normally the two bid tactic was used on jackdaws well into the breeding season. Was an almost Harris hawk style of attack, and after watching it I could not help but think of the T Rex attack in the second Jurassic Park film where the pair of T Rex work as a team to chuck a mobile camper thingy off of a cliff.

whyulittle

Have noticed the (now apparently male) Robin passing food to the female here the past few weeks.

Jackdaws are starting to make a serious assault on my chimney as well. Giving me plenty of kindling at least.

Kess73

March 14th and I had young birds in the garden.

A young robin and a young blackbird.

Will try to get a pic of one or both if I spot them again. Thought it quite early to spot fledged younglings.

Kess73

Not great pics, but good enough for a positive id of a young robin. Think this is the earliest I have had fully fledged chicks in the garden. Will try to see if the young blackbird decides to pose for me tomorrow.


and guess who else was around as usual?

donal2000

Kess73 wrote: »

Not great pics, but good enough for a positive id of a young robin. Think this is the earliest I have had fully fledged chicks in the garden. Will try to see if the young blackbird decides to pose for me tomorrow.


and guess who else was around as usual?

Cool pics. What did the sparrowhawk catch?

Kess73

A housesparrow

shawnee

Super pics , well captured !:D

whyulittle

Garden was crawling with Blackbirds today. Unusually three flew in together, and right in on top the feeders too. At least one other one looked pretty young.