Nesting activity and our first chicks!

Posted on by December 2, 2012
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First sighting of a chick!

When we broke up for the Easter Holidays (30th March), we suspected that the Tree Sparrows in the B&W (Infant) box had started to incubate eggs. Although the dome shaped structure of the nest meant that the birds were mainly out of sight, they did appear to be spending long periods of time sitting very still in the box. By the end of the holidays there appeared to be a lot more activity, could there be chicks? Class 3 were watching the live stream today and think they glimpsed a chick. This evening I definitely spotted the gaping beak of a chick. Keep watching to see how many chicks there are.

Unfortunately, the Robin nest in the box near the gate looks like it was abandoned. It’s possible that the eggs hatched but snowy weather in the first week of the holidays meant that the adults couldn’t collect enough food to support the chicks. Predators may also have been responsible for a failed clutch/brood. However, during the holidays, a pair Long-tailed tits were busy crafting a nest in a nearby Hawthorn bush. The nest is egg shaped and made out of lichen glued together with cobwebs! It is lined with feathers and hair. Please don’t play on or behind the mound, we don’t want to frighten them away from their nest.

A New Nesting Season Starts

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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Birds are already checking out all our school boxes around the school grounds. Tree Sparrows have been building a nest in our B&W birdcam box and House Sparrows have been seen taking a little nesting material into our Colour birdcam box. We have also seen Blue tits going in and out of the box near the pond.

Blue tit – Car park box, Tree sparrow – B&W box, House Sparrow – Colourcam box

Please tell us what you see happening in our nest boxes by leaving a comment on this post.

Big Schools’ Birdwatch 2012 – The Result!

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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Male Bullfinch

We had a hugely successful Big Schools’ Birdwatch this year, with all children taking part over three days. We are very lucky to have such fantastic school grounds with a variety of habitats, including  mature trees such as Alder, Sycamore, Silver Birch and Ash, hedgerows and a pond area.  In addition, the school is surrounded by fields and because Ogston Reservoir is nearby, we often see interesting birds flying overhead (not countable in this survey). This variety in habitat was reflected in the number of different bird species spotted during the week; a grand total of 23! We were particularly lucky to have some less common birds visit and  in very good numbers. These included Tree Sparrows, Bullfinches and Siskins.

A couple of people donated binoculars to school which made it easier for all children to take part in the event; thank you very much for these. We were joined on Friday by a local birdwatcher, Mr Daniel Martin who kindly gave up his time to lend his expert eye and help us spot a number of species we may have otherwise  missed. Most of all, well done children, you did a fantastic job and did your school proud. Let us know which birds you enjoyed seeing most by leaving a comment on this post.

Species Monday 23rd Thursday 26th Friday 27th
Blackbird 0 2 1
Blue Tit 4 4 4
Bullfinch 9 12 14
Carrion Crow 0 0 2
Chaffinch 5 2 3
Coal Tit 0 0 2
Collared Dove 4 0 2
Dunnock 0 0 1
Goldfinch 2 1 7
Great Tit 3 1 3
G.S Woodpecker 1 0 0
Greenfinch 0 0 4
House Sparrow 3 3 2
Magpie 0 3 2
Mistle Thrush 0 0 1
Robin 1 0 1
Rook 11 7 7
Siskin 0 15 6
Starling 0 0 12
Treecreeper 1 0 0
Tree Sparrow 0 7 5
Willow Tit 0 0 1
Woodpigeon 6 5 3
TOTAL BIRDS SEEN 50 62 83
SPECIES COUNT 12 12 21

Big Schools’ Birdwatch, 16-27th January 2012

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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Just a quick note to let you know that we are hoping to take part in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch week commencing 27th January. If you wish to send in binoculars for your child to use, you may hand them into the School office (please make sure they are labelled with your child’s name). If you have any old spare binoculars which you are happy to donate school, we would be happy to put them to good use!

You might also like to take part in the RSPB’s nationwide Big Garden Birdwatch at home. You should undertake your survey on the 28th or 29th of January.

Bird Box Clear Out

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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New nesting material

Autumn has well and truly arrived, so on Friday we decided it was time to clear out the school’s nest boxes to allow for a fresh start for next year. The RSPB and BTO recommend that boxes are cleaned each year to prevent the build up of parasites which might harm future broods. Although Tree Sparrows are known to maintain their dome shaped nests throughout the winter, we were advised to clear out their box as well. I’ve noticed that a few feathers have arrived in the B&W box today, so maybe the Tree Sparrows have already starting to think about making a fresh nest for next year.

The non-camera boxes also had remnants of nests made mainly from moss and so probably made by Tits. We’re not sure whether there had been any successful broods in these because a big hole was found in the new box on a Silver Birch (possibly made by a woodpecker) and the Sparrow terrace box had a wasp nest in the middle section.

A Third Brood for the Tree Sparrows

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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Last chick – home alone!

Checking the live feed from the B&W birdcam box today, I could hear the faint sound of chicks chirping which means that a third brood of Tree Sparrow chicks have hatched some time during the last couple of days.

They seem to have coped well with extra noise generated by the school’s Summer Fair today. Let’s hope they are OK with the wind and rain forecast for this weekend. At least they should fledge during the relative quiet of the Summer Holidays. Keep watching and let us know if you spot any chicks and how many.

Update: The adult Tree Sparrows successfully raised another brood of five chicks, four of which fledged on 30th July. The final chick fledged 2 days later on 1st August.

Five More Tree Sparrows Fledge

Posted on by December 12, 2012
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The Tree Sparrows nesting in our B&W birdcam box have successfully raised another brood of 5 chicks which fledged yesterday (Friday 24th June). Three of the chicks fledged by midday and the final two waited until it was a bit quieter, after the children had gone home to fledge at around 4 pm. On the last day, the adults only fed the chicks at the entrance hole and only entered the box to keep it clean of faecal sacs. The could be heard calling the chicks from nearby trees and from on top of the box to try and encourage them out.

Watch this video of the 4th chick fledging

The chicks will soon have to learn how to find food for themselves as the adults already appear to be preparing the nest to raise a third brood, so watch this space….

A Second Brood!- B&W Birdcam Box

Posted on by February 15, 2015
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2nd Brood

Although we still can’t see the main part of the Tree Sparrows’ nest, we know that they have been incubating a second clutch of eggs because the adults have been taking turns to spend long periods of time in the box. This morning, I listened to the live feed in the Infant classroom and I could hear many chicks chirping away! Watch the box from the outside , keeping your distance so as not to disturb the birds and see if you can spot the adults bringing in food for the chicks. Can you tell what type of food is being brought in? Hopefully it won’t be long before we start seeing the chicks peeping out from under the nesting material.

Update: 15th June – the chicks come out to be fed now and there are at least 5.

Birds and other wildlife you have seen – 2011

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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What birds and other wildlife have you seen  in your garden? Do you have any nest boxes or do you encourage birds into the garden by feeding them? What’s their favourite food?

Perhaps you’ve spotted something special during breaktime or lunchtime in school or spotted something while out for a walk.

Please share your observations by leaving your comments here.

Five Fledgling Tree Sparrows – B&W Birdcam Box

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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By Wednesday morning (18th May) the nest box had become  a bit of a squeeze for the five Tree Sparrow chicks which had grown rapidly since they hatched just over two weeks previously. They started the morning with a lot of wing stretching and flapping and  jumping up at the hole to have a look outside for returning adults, hoping for a good feed. The adults however had other ideas. Today was the day to tempt them out into the big wide world. They only entered the box to clean out any faecal sacs and any feeding was stictly at the hole. Both adults spent a lot of time on top of the box and in nearby trees calling for the chicks to come out. The chicks eventually fledged mid-morning.

Although the  fledglings are already very good at flying, they have stayed close to the school and can often be heard calling from nearby trees so that the adults know where to find and feed them.

The adults have been making regular trips to the box to clean out and repair the nest ready to raise another brood of chicks. Tree Sparrows have 2-3 broods a year and the next clutch of  eggs are often laid within 2 weeks of the previous brood fledging, so keep your eyes open for further activity.

We are very lucky to have Tree Sparrows nesting at Stretton Handley School. Their breeding population has dropped by more than 50% in recent times and so the Tree Sparrow appears on the Red List of birds of high conservation concern.

We Have Blue Tit Chicks (colour birdcam)

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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Nearly two weeks after the blue tits started incubating their 9 eggs, the chicks started to hatch today (13th May). It was really exciting for the Year 6s who were able to watch the first chick hatch during their ICT lesson! Hopefully, many more chicks will hatch over the next couple of days. It took a while for the adults to notice the chick and to start to try and feed it.

Update: Nine chicks hatched 13-14th May and three chicks fledged 2nd June.

We also have blue tit chicks in the new bird box on one of the Silver Birch trees at the bottom of the playing field. Although there isn’t a camera in this box, we can see the adults flying in and out bringing food to the chicks.

Tree Sparrow chicks in the B&W Birdcam Box?

Posted on by December 12, 2012
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Grub up!

The Tree Sparrows have built a dome shaped nest which means they are hidden from view most the time when in the box. However, you may have noticed that the adult birds appear to be bringing food to the box this last week and if you get a chance to listen to the live video feed, you might hear chirping. Does this mean we have chicks?

If you are playing outside, take care not disturb the birds in our nest boxes, it’s a busy and exhausting time for them.

Some Tree Sparrow facts:

Clutch size: 5-6
Incubation: 12-13 days
Time to fledge: 15-18 days
Number of broods: 2-3

Can you hear the hungry chicks in this when both adults visit to feed them?

Can you spot three chicks in this video?

Blue Tits Nesting in the Colour Birdcam Box

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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We’ve been having daytime visitors to our colour birdcam box for a while now. Earlier this year a Great Tit was regularly roosting in the box at night but today some blue tits have started nesting, taking out some of the droppings left by the Great Tit and bringing in moss. We will have to wait and see whether this nest is successful or not because a wasp has also been in the box for the last few days and may have even started building a nest too (white blob at the right of the birdcam picture).

Update: The colourcam was offline for a while during the holidays. Four eggs were on view on the 27th April when the camera was switched back on. Incubation of the 7 or 8 eggs started around 1st May.

Please let us know what you have seen in our colourcam box by leaving a comment on this post.

Tree Sparrow Nest Complete! – B&W Box

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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At the beginning of  March, blue tits and tree sparrows were regular visitors to the box although the roosting blue tit stopped sleeping in the box at the end of February. By the middle of March the blue tits were being seen less often and the tree sparrows had started bringing in more nesting material. The nest began to take on a more domed shaped with the tree sparrows often disappearing under the grassy material through an entrance hole to one side of the box. The nest now looks to be complete although the birds have been bringing in feathers to line the nest and spend quite a bit of time in the box.

Tree Sparrows start to breed at the beginning of April, they may well have laid some eggs already which are hidden from sight. We shall have to watch the live feed more at school for evidence that eggs are being incubated. How do you think we might tell whether there are eggs or chicks in the nest?

Update: Checking the live video feed in school on 27th April, it appears that the Tree Sparrows are taking in turns to be in the box, which suggests they are incubating some eggs.

New Nest Boxes and Other Wildlife Around School

Posted on by December 1, 2012
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You may have noticed that a few more nest boxes have been put up around school, have you spotted them? These boxes haven’t got cameras in them, so if you see any birds using them, let us know by leaving a comment on this post. Blue tits have already been seen investigating the sparrow terrace box outside Class 2 and one blue tit had even grander ideas, coming indoors to investigate the classroom!

Frogspawn was spotted in the school pond on 14th March and newly hatched tadpoles on 25th March.