A BAd Thing

[karenbee]

Can anyone help me as I think I have done a bad thing. Yesterday my cat alerted me to the possibility that there may be a bird nesting in the nesting box. It has been up for 2 years and never used so I went to check. Sure enough there was a bird (couldn't see what) sitting on a nest. I think it has now gone but there are 3 eggs. Did scare it away by trying to peek?
Karen

[PiratesAhoy!]

It's possible that the adult has been scared off, although some do come back after making sure the 'coast is clear'. Give it another day or so.

There's nothing you can do if it doesn't come back anyway - successfully incubating the eggs yourself and raising the chicks is incredibly difficult, and not something I would advise anyone to attempt.

If the adult bird flew away after only a minor scare like that though, it's possible that the eggs may be only in an early stage of development, or possibly infertile, so if she has run away for good, it may have been likely to happen anyway - perhaps she thought the nesting site wasn't good enough for her.

[karenbee]

But if I can't peek - how do I check??!! Also - to be honest - the lid ended up dropping with a bang because I slipped - so it was probably quite a big scare. I feel like I have killed 3 little birds and feel awful :(
Karen

[PiratesAhoy!]

Leave them to it I guess. See if you can spot the parents going into and out of the nest, but don't get so close that they'll be uncomfortable with your presence.

[dougied]

It happens! Last year we had some blue tits nesting in our box, but when I went to clean it out earlier this year I found a perfect nest with six eggs still in it. I don't know why, but the parents must have abandoned it. :confused: If your birds don't come back, you shouldn't blame yourself. It could be for any number of reasons.

[tarling]

Hi Karen,

I don't want to sound too much like a "me too" poster but I have to agree strongly that you should not be feeling guilty. Nature is red in tooth and claw; survival of the fittest and all that.

Firstly I think the best thing is probably to leave it alone - it's a terrible temptation to go back and peak but you must be strong and resist that!

One of our nest boxes that had blue tits in it a year or two ago was disturbed by a great spotted woodpecker trying to peck through the front of the box (we already had one of the nest box plates on it - so the woodpecker was going through the entire thickness of the box below that - presumably quite close the the height of the nestlings). I screwed another steel plate on the front and the parent birds were nowhere to be seen, so we feared for the worst - however they obviously came back a while later and all was well. I imagine birds are often scared by a predator (adult birds try to lure predators away from a nest by teasing them from a direction of away; and I know what happened when I erroneously wandered too close to a plover nest), and I think the parent birds often stay away to let things quieten down for a while.

I hope there is some expert here who can tell me whether I'm right in thinking that birds like blue tits lay a series of eggs a day or two apart but do NOT start brooding them until they have a clutch (and that's why they all hatch at about the same time), so some of the eggs in a typical nest have probably been essentially left unbrooded for a week or so - so yours might still be OK if they come back.

Also: I guess you're probably feeding the birds AND you've provided them a home in the first place. As others have pointed out there are lots of reasons that birds don't return to a nest - from road kill to sparrowhawk - that's life.

May I please may one suggestion: that you ask father xmas for a camera nest box for next season!

We got one only a few weeks ago - just the cheapest B&W one, and we moved an existing box and replaced it with the camera one. It's a great-tit sized box and hole but we very quickly got a blue tit taking it on (and we wondered whether they might be gazumped by a larger bird - but not so far).
It has been fascinating. We can't identify individuals but just once or twice we've seen two birds in there. We've watched the nest building - and the amazing wriggling dance to form the cup (even when there were only three twigs in the box!) - and we've heard the hammering away at the hole - and inside. The nest has taken a couple of weeks to build. I wondered whether the male did the early heavy construction and then we've recently had a bout rearranging of the soft-furnishings - feathers, moss or lichen and cat's fur coming in and going out - which could be the female - there's also been a lot of trying out the nest cup for size.
Roosting has been amazing as well - the bird spends ages fluffing itself up - and probably cleaning off a few mites and fleas. We've no eggs yet, but we're hopeful... I thoroughly recommend one of the camera boxes.
The camera nest box was easy to install (but as observed elsewhere in this forum you do have to get the plug and wire through to the house), we had one minor problem with the transformer which CJ were very quick and helpful in sorting out. It's not Springwatch quality but it is our very own - and frankly given the quality of the TV programmes at the moment this often makes better viewing!

Anyway do please let us know if you see any signs of a return (but do not get too close!)- and whatever the outcome do NOT do guilt.

Regards, Stephen

[karenbee]

Well thank you to Dougied and Stephen for making me feel much better! The reason why the birds might quite like this box is because now Spring is here it is quite well hidden by my blossoming plum tree - so I cannot really see if there is any traffic in and out of the box - just loads of birds waiting patiently in the trees for their turn at the feeders! So - ok - I shall be hopeful that when I go back at the end of the summer those 3 eggs will be gone.
Thanks again :)
Now I am just waiting for all parrots to come back....!
thanks again
Karen

[karenbee]

Well I wasn't trying to get too close - but had to refill the feeder that was nearby.....anyway - there is definitely still a bird in there - so I am celebrating!

[SCRUMPY]

That's brilliant news!:) :)

[PiratesAhoy!]

Excellent :)

[karenbee]

Does anyone know how long this whole process takes? There are now 3 little babies but most of the time there doesn't seem to be an adult in the nest. Once the eggs are hatched do the parents spend most of the time getting food? The neighbourhood cats seem to be taking it in turns to keep vigil so they must be aware of some activity!
Karen

[SCRUMPY]

Karenbee,

With the robins who nested in our mini greenhouse, after hatching both parents would be fetching food so the nest was left unattended for quite a while but we noticed the babies just slept all the time when Mum wasn't there
.
I can't recall whether you had found out which type of bird is nesting in your box?

Certainly with the robins both parents do the feeding and the mother sits on the babies when she isn't feeding, and stays there overnight.

With the robins the babies leave the nest 13-15 days after hatching according to the book we have. Our baby left at 14 days.

Do you know when the eggs were laid, because I guess you can say 14 days seems to be the average length of time before they are ready to leave the nest.

We bought a cat scarer to ensure our cats and the local neighbourhood cats didn't linger too long in the garden, and when we knew it was roughly about the time the babies would leave the nest we kept our cats in for a few days and nights, because robin babies cannot fly for 2 days after leaving the nest and we wanted to give ours a chance to get out of the garden.


Mum robin is now sitting on her next batch of 3 eggs and they are due to hatch next Tuesday, so we're looking forward to that!

Our baby has survived so far because Dad robin is taking food over the fence into the woods for it, and we can hear it making it's "tick" noise.

Good luck with your babies:D

[karenbee]

I honestly don't know what type of bird it is. All I know is that when I peeked all I saw was a dark brown tail. The eggs were very small, white and with coloured speckles. Unfortunately, I can't see any comings or goings as the nest is hidden behind a tree.

It just seems to be taking rather a long time. I thought that 2 weeks was the time for them to hatch and leave. But I first saw these eggs on April 11th - which is over 3 weeks ago. These babies had no feathers and were nowhere near ready to fly or leave.

Could this be another batch?
Karen

[SCRUMPY]

Sounds to me like it could be house sparrows going by your description - in which case it is going to be a second batch as the incubation period is 12-14 days and fledging is 11-19 days according to my Collins guide to garden birds.

Shame you haven't got a good view of the nest so you can keep an eye on them;)

[karenbee]

:) Ok Scrumpy - a result for you! Alerted by cat vigils in the garden I stood out there in a good position and was watching a blue tit flying all over the place with food in his mouth. Eventually - he or she went into the nestbox! There are 6 babies in there. So maybe they laid 3 eggs and came back and laid the other three. So my book says 16 -22 days after hatching before they fly away. But very good to see the parent fly in and feed them. How amazing!:D
Karen

[SCRUMPY]

That's good ....mystery solved:)

I looked in my bird book for your description and it was the brown tail that threw me!

[karenbee]

Yes sorry about that - I thought I said a dark tail - it was dark in that box and I only got a quick look before I dropped the lid! Now I know what bird I am looking at, I can see plenty of activity in and out of the nest. What amazing little creatures they are! Do you know what I should do once they have left the nest? Am I supposed to leave it there for future use or clean it up? Will other birds, or even the same birds reuse the nest?
Karen

[SCRUMPY]

I would suggest that you leave it alone once the current inhabitants move out! The adults may well use it again.

Certainly with the robins in our mini greenhouse, when Mrs robin was still on the nest I sent an e-mail to the RSPB on their web site, asking if it was likey the robins would use the same nest for the next brood.. The response I got was to advise if they had a successful brood which fledged okay then the robins could well use the nest again.

As it turns out within 2 days of the baby leaving the nest mum was in there again with fresh nesting material and ended up laying a further 3 eggs for the second batch. They are due to hatch tomorrow.:)


So, probably best to just leave it alone and wait and see.

[karenbee]

I would suggest that you leave it alone once the current inhabitants move out! The adults may well use it again.

Certainly with the robins in our mini greenhouse, when Mrs robin was still on the nest I sent an e-mail to the RSPB on their web site, asking if it was likey the robins would use the same nest for the next brood.. The response I got was to advise if they had a successful brood which fledged okay then the robins could well use the nest again.

As it turns out within 2 days of the baby leaving the nest mum was in there again with fresh nesting material and ended up laying a further 3 eggs for the second batch. They are due to hatch tomorrow.:)


So, probably best to just leave it alone and wait and see.
How are your baby robins? I am now not sure if mine are blue tits or great tits!

[SCRUMPY]

Karenbee
The robins are a week old today...........all three eggs hatched and the babies are growing rapidly:)

The blackbird eggs are due to hatch this weekend so it's all go.:)
The nest is in the forsythia and quite well hidden so we're hopeful that the neighbourhood cats won't notice;)

[karenbee]

Karenbee
The robins are a week old today...........all three eggs hatched and the babies are growing rapidly:)

The blackbird eggs are due to hatch this weekend so it's all go.:)
The nest is in the forsythia and quite well hidden so we're hopeful that the neighbourhood cats won't notice;)
Wow - it must be very busy in your garden! My friendly parrots came back this morning! I haven't seent them since February, I thought they had deserted me. It's so amazing to watch it all.
thanks
Karen

[SCRUMPY]

I've just had a peek into the mini-greenhouse to see how the babies are doing..........and surprise, surprise...........there are 6 babies in there, not 3 as we first thought.:D

They are now 9 days old and looking great:)