Pennington Infants Nestbox Diary 2004
One of our pair of Blue Tits sat in the nestbox entrance. Click on image for a large hi-res version. Monday 22nd March 2004 - First signs of activity in the box. One Blue Tit came in and had a good look around.
Wednesday 24th March 2004 - Blue Tit in the box again today.
Thursday 25th March 2004 - Two Blue Tits seen in the box at the same time.
Friday 26th March 2004 - Looks like they have decided that this will be home. Bird seen in box 5 times during the day bringing in small pieces of straw, moss, etc.
Wednesday 31st March 2004 - Lots of activity in the box, moving nesting material around. Two birds in the box together and lots of noise.
Thursday 1st April 2004 - One bird pecking away madly at the box for most of the day. Almost like a woodpecker, actually removing small pieces of wood from the nestbox.
Monday 5th April 2004 - Nest really starting to take shape. Birds still bringing material in.
Easter Holidays - Only people in school occasionally and very little sign of activity. Some concerns that they may have abandoned the nest.
Monday 19th April 2004 - Concerns unfounded. No birds seen today - but there are two eggs in the nest.
Tuesday 20th April 2004 - Four eggs in the nest today. Bird covered them up in the afternoon.
Thursday 22nd April 2004 - Two birds in the box, one with a worm in its beak.
Monday 26th April 2004 - Six eggs today. After lunchtime the tit spent the afternoon sat on the eggs. It looked like she was re-arranging them, but she may have been laying - because...
Tuesday 27th April 2004 - Bird sat on the eggs, when she moved we saw that there were ELEVEN eggs in the nest. One tit sat on the eggs most of the day, the other visiting regularly and feeding her (?) with grubs and worms.
Thursday 29th April 2004 - Bird sat on eggs 95% of the time now. Lots of re-arranging of the eggs and shaping the nest as she sits on it.
Friday 30th April - Friday 7th May 2004 - Tit sat on eggs all of the time, apart from the odd minute or two. Is it the same one all of the time, or do they take turns? Investigation tells us that eggs are incubated for 14 days, so we should be near hatching time. Lets hope they wait until next week and don't hatch over the weekend when the children will miss it.
Monday 10th May 2004 - We arrived at school to discover that WE HAVE BABIES! Seven had already hatched, another 3 hatched during the day. The children were fascinated.
Meg wrote - We saw the daddy bird collecting baby caterpillars, it was amazing. Some of the eggs have hatched. Three eggs have got to hatch. The eggs look cute I can't wait till they are grown up because they will be all fluffy and cute.
Zoe wrote - First we saw little baby chicks and the mother and father. The father went and got food for the little baby chicks. The mother stayed there and kept the chicks warm. There were 3 eggs left ready to be hatched.
Jamie wrote - In the bird box the mummy was sitting on 3 eggs. The other eight had hatched. The daddy bird gave the baby birds a caterpillar to eat.
Tuesday 11th May 2004 - Chicks are all hatched and alive. Feeding constantly and gettin bigger and stronger. Both birds getting and giving food.
Thursday 13th May 2004 - Mum and dad in and out every 5 minutes feeding the chicks. They look to have increased in size by about 50%. They are still blind but look to be getting a bit fluffy. Mum and dad are meticulously clean, every little poo from the chicks is removed from the nest immediately. The chicks are just starting to make a cheeping sound.
Friday 14th May 2004 - Chicks getting bigger by the day. Constant feeding by the parents.
Monday 17th May 2004 - The nest is getting really crowded. The chicks are getting much bigger, their legs are getting long, their wings are much more well formed, they are very downy and their eyes are still closed. It is getting progressively noisier!
Wednesday 19th May 2004 - Even bigger, even noisier. Still with closed eyes but the chicks are constantly hungry. Ryan Hewitson May from Year Two drew this wonderful picture of the bird box. Click on this text to view it (I love the sun shining through the nestbox hole)
Thursday 20th May 2004 - The chicks still haven't opened their eyes yet, but they are really starting to look like birds. They are growing small feathers, especially on their wings, which they exercise frequently. They are showing obvious pattern on their bodies and wings
Friday 21st May 2004 - The children are doing some lovely writing about, and pictures of, what they are seeing in the nestbox. To see scans of their work click on the text below.
Charlotte Staines nestbox diary writing.
Georgia Jacob nestbox diary writing.
Jack Bradley nestbox diary writing.
Monday 24th May 2004 - Came in to school after a weekend away - and our babies are gone. In the nest are eleven little birds, with open eyes, feathers, markings, proper shaped beaks and very loud voices. It cannot be long before they fledge, We are told that this often happens very early in the morning. We hope they wake up late that day so that we can see them go.
Wednesday 26th May 2004 - The chicks are really huge now. They are spilling out of the nest and hopping around the box. They are frequently flexing their wings. They have very prominent markings. We expect them to fledge very soon. Some of the Year Two children went outside to look at, and listen to, the nestbox. The sound of the chicks inside the box is very loud when you stand underneath. The children were amazed by the way that the parent birds fly straight through the very small hole into the nestbox without slowing down.
Thursday 27th May 2004 - Still there. The relationship with the parent birds is becoming quite physical. Chicks who don't get fed become quite irate with the parent, aiming pecks at them as they leave the box. The chicks are so large and the box is so crowded that it is very hard to count them. But we believe that there are still eleven birds in the nest.
Friday 28th May 2004 - Lots of wing exercising today. Some of the nestlings are now lifting off in the box and fluttering up towards the nestbox entrance hole
Saturday 29th May 2004 - The birds have finally flown, an empty nestbox at 10.00. The stories that we heard of dawn fledging must be correct. Bye bye birdies, we have very much enjoyed having you,
