Mech1's Bird Box and Feeder Cams

Mech1

1st Egg has arrived!!!

Alun

Mech1 wrote: »

1st Egg has arrived!!!

Congratulations!

Our bluetits stopped at 7 in total, and she's brooding away.

Mech1

1st egg laid this morning!

Should be one laid every morning from now on for maybe 8 to 12 days.

Tune in at approx 5.00Am till maybe 6.30Am to see each laying Live. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mech11

Alun

Mech1 wrote: »

1st egg laid this morning!

Should be one laid every morning from now on for maybe 8 to 12 days.

Tune in at approx 5.00Am till maybe 6.30Am to see each laying Live. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mech11

I have motion detection turned on on my camera so it records a short video every time motion is detected, and as hard as I tried I never spotted the exact moment when each egg was laid. The other thing I noticed that made it difficult was that while she was still laying, she'd hide the eggs quite well under a pile of fur and feathers, so it was quite difficult to make out when a new one was added. Now that she's brooding, they're all usually arranged in a nice symmetrical pattern in the middle of the nest so they're easily visible when she briefly leaves them to feed or collect food from the male at the box entrance.

Mech1

Egg count up to 3 seen clearly, maybe another one hidden.

Mech1

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/62094518

Skip to end part of video I think I can see 5 eggs just as she gets off the nest.

Alun

Mech1 wrote: »

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/62094518

Skip to end part of video I think I can see 5 eggs just as she gets off the nest.

Yes, I think you're right.

Mech1

Definite 6 eggs visible this morning. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mech11

Mech1

7 eggs now, she spent a lot of time today in the nest box so maybe incubating is starting, please share this link the more viewers the better.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mech11

Mech1

I also sorted a pretty closeup external cam should make for good viewing of mr bluetit coming and going and eventually the fledglings.

Alun

Looks like there's 8 there now, that's one more than mine. Mine started incubating around the 1st May, so should start fledging within the next few days.

My camera is accessible from the Internet, but currently not via a service like ustream, so I'm only able to share it with a limited number of friends and family so as not to overload my upload bandwidth, but I'll put up any interesting snippets on YouTube. I'm determined this year to catch the moment of hatching!

Alun

I was just searching the web for other webcams and came across this strange one ...

http://biggonline.co.uk/2015/may15/may15-1.htm

One of their nests has two females sitting on 18 eggs between them !!! I never knew this happened.

Alun

First chick born about 15 mins ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BxAzGxHeQQ

Mech1

What's the story if the male bird doesn't help the female feed?

No sign of the male today.

Alun

Mech1 wrote: »

What's the story if the male bird doesn't help the female feed?

No sign of the male today.

I found that while incubating, the male bird would only occasionally make an appearance, and the female would often leave the eggs for a while to go off and feed. If he did come in it'd be in and out quite quickly, so you might easily miss it.

I've just captured egg no 4 hatching, so will upload that to Youtube as soon as I can.

EDIT: Here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUBFE84zvl8

I think this is the male as he looks a bit clueless as to what to do with the shell. Shortly after this the female came in, and immediately started eating the shell, as she did with all the others, presumably to replenish her calcium levels.

Alun

The last time I looked last night 4 out of the 7 had hatched, but she's staying firmly on the nest today, so I can't see if any more have hatched. The lashing rain isn't good news for either her or the male to be out catching food for the new hatchlings, fingers crossed it stops soon !!

EDIT: I've just gone through some of the recorded footage from this morning and it looks like there's 5 chicks now. Not much evidence of feeding though which isn't good news.

EDIT2: It's hard to tell, but I think I only see one egg remaining amongst the squirming mass of little pink wormy chicks At let the rain has stopped now so they'll be able to get out and find food. Given the delay in the last 2 or 3 hatching, it looks like we'll have another 'runt' or two this year again, whose survival will be questionable

Mech1

Good luck Alun, we are hoping the best for your little ones, keep the videos coming.

Alun

Mech1 wrote: »

Good luck Alun, we are hoping the best for your little ones, keep the videos coming.

I can't see the egg any more so I assume it's hatched, but it's difficult to see how many there are when they're all huddled together in one mass. If it has I don't hold out too much hope for it though, after last year's experience. The others have come on leaps and bounds in only two days, so it'll be lucky to get any food however hard the mother tries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzKz-QWuX6Q

fr336

Off air!!

Mech1

fr336 wrote: »

Off air!!

yep, i guess the ATC feed went down also, internet supplier problem, the ATC is set to reboot itself with no input from me, the birdcam cant do that, yet.

fr336

Mech1 wrote: »

yep, i guess the ATC feed went down also, internet supplier problem, the ATC is set to reboot itself with no input from me, the birdcam cant do that, yet.

Dock those bluetit wages Pat!

Alun

Mine are only between 3 to 5 days old, but I can already see small feathers appearing on their little wings! They've also developed a stripe down their backs. The 'runt' of the brood still seems to be alive, but he/she doesn't seem to be too good at attracting the parents' attention for food when they come in, so fingers crossed.

Alun

7 chicks feeding well, plus a good view of a "poo sac" removal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cJ9eAS9L3Y

Mech1

Alun wrote: »

7 chicks feeding well, plus a good view of a "poo sac" removal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cJ9eAS9L3Y

Your video is showing as private, we cant see it.

Alun

Mech1 wrote: »

Your video is showing as private, we cant see it.

Should be OK now.

Mech1

My eggs are still in the incubation period, guessing at hatching mid next week 26th onwards. So keep watching!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mech11

Still no sign of the male bird, last seen in the box maybe on the 10th 11th of this month, getting worried if we got a single mum so lots of live mealworms out everyday now in a caged feeder. Only big enough gaps for Robins / tits the robins are loving it.

Please let me know if you spot the male on camera.

(great video Alun)

GrumpyMe

Poor little Bluetit Mom....
As if she doesn't have enough to worry about, 8(?) eggs incubating and no "dad"...
Just heard the magpie(s) outside the nest, saw the shadows as they harass, and saw moms pathetic attempt to protect her brood!
Nature is not kind sometimes!
She'll need all the help she can get if she is to succeed...

Alun

I shouldn't worry too much at this stageMech11. It can be difficult to spot the male coming in unless you happen to catch them both in the nestbox at the same time which didn't happen very often at all with my lot when she was still brooding. Sometimes I'd see that she would just get off the eggs and go up to the entrance and then come back, so I assume the male had brought her something to eat and just handed it over at the entrance without coming in himself.

Now that the chicks are hatched, and growing fast, both parents are often seen in there together bringing food, as one parent on their own would find it difficult to keep up with demand of all those hungry beaks!

kerry4sam

Such a Sweet Thread guys. Thanks for starting & sharing your links & videos

TopTec

^^^^ Plus 1^^^^

My OH says watching this is as good as watching a soap opera!

TT