The Bird Box is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Totnes www.TotnesRotary.co.uk

These babies have two healthy parents to care for them, and a roof over their heads to shelter them from the rain and cold.

Help The Rotary Club of Totnes to help the victims of flood and earthquakes by sending more financial support.

Send a cheque no matter how small, payable to The Rotary Club of Totnes to:- Rotarian Peter Thornhill, 21, Elmbank, Buckfastleigh, TQ11 0DN.

We will ensure that EVERY penny goes to ShelterBox.

The cost of a ShelterBox is £490.00 which covers the box, contents and transport to its destination anywhere in the world.

We would like to thank all those who sent Anonymous donations to us for this worthwhile cause. 

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We are providing the bird table with cornflakes, grated cheese, muesli, porridge oats, fruit, bread and butter, bread and dripping, mixed seeds, and fat balls.

The blue tits are feeding the chicks on grated cheese and fat ball apart from the grubs and caterpillars they find in our fir tree, giving them a rich supplement

We are currently receiving about 200 birds per day on the table which include:- rooks, magpies, jackdaws, black birds, house sparrows, tree sparrows, chaffinches, bullfinches, coal tits, greenfinches, robins, pigeons and doves,

The first 3 eggs hatch on the 15th May at 10.00am all hatched by the 16th May

The nesting box was cleaned and fitted with Infra Red lighting so that we can see what is going on in the dark.

Any comments please to Peter@buckfastleigh.org

Mother

Last to leave 2008

Last to leave 2007

All in the top of the tree 2006

After removing the nest, we found it to contain moss, small twigs, hair, feathers, cotton wood, cobwebs and small leaves

At the deep end (the back) it was 50 mm deep at the front 15 mm, the nest its self was 100mm X 100 mm.

She laid 10 eggs between 21st April and 5th May, then she started to sit on them. The eggs lay dormant until the 5th May so that they would all hatch together, 13 days later the first chick hatched follow by the others between 06.00 and 11.30 am on the 18th of May.

Try our other Links -      Rod's Bird Box Camera Pages

Dartmoor National Park              Parrots.OnDartmoor.net

Blue Tits Description

At first glance the acrobatic and cheeky Blue Tit is a blue and yellow bird.
A closer inspection reveals bright blue wings, tail and crown, yellow under parts, greenish back and mantle, white cheeks, and black eye stripe, bib and collar. They also have a black streak down the middle of the belly, and a white wing bar (across the coverts). The bill is black and the legs are a blue-grey.
The sexes are similar, though the female is slightly paler.
The juvenile birds are duller than the adults and have greener crown, wings and tail, and yellow cheeks.
The Blue Tit's song is "tsee-tsee-tsu-hu-hu-hu-hu" and can be heard all year round. The alarm call is a churring sound.

Feeding
Blue Tits feed mostly on insects, especially caterpillars, and seeds. In springtime they feed also on pollen, nectar and sap, and in the autumn on berries.
In the garden they search among the plants and crevices for insects (e.g. aphids, beetles, and caterpillars) and spiders, but also take sunflower hearts or high energy seed from bird feeders, or peck at a suet food bar or peanuts.
They are one of the most agile birds, and they will entertain for hours by hanging upside down from feeders, branches, etc. They are also opportunists and will often peck through foil milk bottle tops for the cream.
Blue Tits, and other tits, also peck putty around windows, usually at winter time. Some may simply be hungry and attracted to the linseed oil in the putty, though it is thought more likely that they are simply searching for food.

Nesting
Blue Tits will nest in any hole in a tree, wall or nest box. They are well known for nesting in more unusual places, such as letter boxes, pipes, etc. The nest is a cup made by the female from moss, wool, dead leaves, spiders' webs, and lined with down.
Their clutch size is the largest among nidicolous species, laying typically 10 to 12 eggs. The eggs are laid at such a time that green caterpillars will be abundant when the chicks hatch. Second clutches are rare.
The eggs are smooth and glossy, and white with purplish-red or reddish-brown spots. They are about 16 mm by 12 mm. The female incubates the eggs by herself. After the young hatch, they are fed by both parents.

Movements
The Blue Tit is resident and does not usually wander more than a few kilometres far from its natal (birth) place.

Conservation
Blue Tit populations often decrease considerably during harsh winters or after poor breeding seasons where the whether is cold and wet, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed.