This is where you can post your comments about what you have seen on our colour birdcam during June 2008. The chicks have now hatched, will they survive to fledge? When did you first see their eyes open? When did they start to get their feathers? Help us keep a record of their development.
arrrrrrr the new chicks have hatched lets hope they survive!!!
we`ve watched them on the big screen this afternoon ,they’re soooooooooo cute,even though they look like stretchy aliens!!!
As we watched, we saw the chicks being fed.To get them to open their big mouths the mum
made a cheeping noise.
The father came in and gave the chicks a big juicy catepillar then took the poo out of
the nest.
I think that all the eggs are hatched but all of them are crouched up.But during the holiday I looked on the birdcam blog there was only five but the mum bird came in an sat on them.
Had a good look at the chicks today and there are definitely seven so you are right, they all hatched! Let’s hope they all survive to fledge.
Mrs Mahadevan
They look so small down at the bottom of the box! Good luck with them – with there only being 5 maybe they have more chance of all growing up to fledge.
It’s hard to count them when they are so small but it’s a bit easier on the live video. There was definitely seven yesterday, although one was very small. One of the children said they counted seven beaks today although I’ve only seen six open at once.
My class watched your birdcam yesterday. They loved watching the open beaks and counting them. We also saw the parent birds feeding the chicks.
The chicks are just over week old now and are no longer pink and wriggly but dark and wriggly, Mostly covered in a feathery down. Their eyes are still shut but the chicks can sometimes be seen out of the well of the nest, particularly when an adult blue tit is digging deep in the nest to clear it out. Have only been able to see six chick for the past couple of days.
Well done on all your chicks!
Only counted 5 this evening but I know they can hide behind each other!
Hope they all make it out the nest.
Miss Sutton
Hallam Fields Junior School
Just seen all 6 when mum came in to feed!!Very cute!
Miss Sutton
Hopefully will have some more video for everyone to watch soon, once I’ve sorted out the problems caused by the blog upgrade.
They’re 10 days old and we think they’re just starting to open their eyes the one that goes out of the nest ring doesn’t get fed when it’s out. Their necks go way longer when their mum comes to feed them.
The birds are going out of the well of the nest. They have lots of feathers and make a lot of noise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
There are now six chicks .The chicks have feathers on their head spine and wings .You can see some of the markings .One of the chicks have died but the rest are still active. One of the birds is quite strong and keeps standing outside the nest. The mum chucks the chicks out the nest to clean it.
The chicks have only just started wandering round the nest and they will not stop cheeping they are so cute.
Every day they get bigger and bigger I think the birds may soon open there eyes then start to fledge.
They have now started growing fethers and stretton handley have
to watch them every day, we also think the little chicks may not
survive.Little Eaton’s chicks may be the first successful chicks to fledge.
They were all out of the nest and the mum was cleaning the nest. Now there are three out and all of the other blue tits are in the nest.The mum blue tit came and gave the baby blue tit some food.
Well what adventurous little ones they are! Our babies stayed in the well of the nest most of the time and did not wander around the box. They are all well tucked together tonight under the roosting mum or dad. You have some lovely shots of them.
It looks like we may have lost a couple of chicks overnight. On the live video feed, only five chicks are visible and one of those is not moving even when a parent enters the nest. All six chicks were active yesterday although one looked like it was particularly itchy. It rained last night and it is a bit cooler this morning so four of the chicks are huddled together in the well of the nest for warmth. Both parents have been seen visiting.
This afternoon, I witnessed one of the parent birds removing a dead chick from the box. It flew with great difficulty for about 25 m before dumping the chick over the playing fields. Watching the live video feed some 15 minutes later, I saw one of the adults making several attempts to remove the other dead chick from the well of the nest. Having finally got it free, it then had to make many attempts to reach the hole and fit both itself and the chick through it.
Although all this seems very sad, we know that the adult birds have done exactly the right thing to to give the remaining four chicks the best chance of survival. Dead chicks may harbour diseases and parasites presenting a health hazard to the live chicks. By dumping the dead chicks far from the nest, the adults birds ensured predators wouldn’t be drawn to the nest box.
I have only seen 4 chicksin the last few hours! Mum is burying under the chicks a lot! spring cleaning?
I’m afraid we lost two chicks last night which were finally removed from the box this afternoon – see comment below 🙁
There are now three chicks left in the bird box. 🙁
Yes, I think we lost another one yesterday.
Only two chicks this morning! I don’t think an adult bird has spent the night in the box for the last two nights. One of the chicks looks less well developed than its sibling.
i have seen your BABy it looks like ours thAt flew lAst week
An extremely fat chick is left in the nest, let’s hope he can get through that hole when he
fledges ! The other small chick died last night 🙁 .
Our chick fledged at 7.10 am, he didn’t wait for us to see him off. Perhaps he wanted to join the Juniors at Lea Green today! I watched as the chick flew up to the window, hung around there as an adult enticed him to the entrance hole from outside. It then sat in the hole for another half minute before flying off. I wonder if we will see it around today?
Congratulations! It must have been such a worrying time watching over the remaining chick – I know it was for us with our chick.
A long wait till next year’s brood
I saw two birds going ln and out of the box