Dead chicks in my nest box.

deeksofdoom

A couple of years ago I made a few bird boxes and put them up on the trees at the back of my house, this year for the first time a family of blue tits moved into one of the houses, I was delighted and could see the parents flying in and out with bits of grass to build the nest.

I have a raised bed just under the tree and as i was doing a bit of weeding i could hear the chicks chirping in the box. Last weekend i was watching the parents coming too and fro and could see the little chicks coming to the opening of the box... everything was working out great.

I was doing a few jobs out the back and had to climb onto the ditch under the tree to dump some grass clippings, I stayed away from the box so as not to disturb the birds. I also took one of the other bird boxes down which was on another tree further down the ditch, it was facing the wrong way and i was going to move it to another location.

Anyway yesterday I could n't hear or see the chicks and there was no sign of the parents, so i had a look in the box there were 3 chicks and they were all dead.

Did I do too much and disturb the birds causing them to abandon the nest or could something else have caused the parents to leave?

Birdnuts

Don't be too hard on yourself about this. Every second person with next boxes I've talked to in the past month has told me that their nesting blue tits etc. have totally failed and/or abandoned the nest. The only valid explanation is the lack of chick food due to 2 months of cold/wet weather that has plagued this years nesting season. I fear the productivity of many species that depend on the likes of caterpillars,flying insects etc. is going to be hard hit. Some species like Swallows may well rescue the situation if the weather improves significantly over the coming weeks(which I think it will as is the nature of late springs) with second or third clutches but other species struggle to raise second broods and may not produce any chicks this year due to the late onset of availiable insect etc. food. The late arrival of many of our summer migrants like cuckoos and swifts due to adverse weather conditions was another sign that this breeding season was going to be a tough one

Half-cocked

Moth trapping has been very slow this Spring, a good indication that there is a lack of caterpillars etc for feeding chicks.

deeksofdoom

Thanks for that lads, maybe they'll be back so.