So is today the day they go. Well yes and I was correct 🙂
In all the nests I have watched and monitored before, it normally can take some time for all of the chicks to fledge. I remember one year that I had to go through eight hours of recordings to see the young leave. Well today they did not hang around!
At 9am the Male Great Tit came in and checked the nest box and the young Great Tits. No food was being brought in which is normally a sign the parents are trying to tempt the chicks to come out of the box.
The Female visited shortly after and again with no food. The young must be hungry by now.
Around 09:10am, the young Great Tits decide it is time to think about leaving the box. They have only ever seen the parents appear from a hole to bring in food, so they do not fully know where the exit is. On several occasions they sort of started to head in the right direction, with the camera capturing the image below of one of the young flying up towards the exit.
Later they decided to try the back wall of the box as an exit. Ouch that is not going to work!
Later they try heading out the top of the box. Just before the Female Great Tit left the box, so will they learn that it’s the big hole that they need to use?
Well it seemed to work, as one of the young decided to fly to the hole!
Was the first one about to fledged….. well no. It fell back down into the nest box. Still determined though it went for another go!
Finally at 09.17am the first chick fledged and headed towards a Cherry tree.
One gone four to go!
To the young Great Tits the BIG wide would must be a strange place to see when you have only ever saw the inside of a nest, incoming food deliveries and the four sides of a wooden box.
It did not take long before the other chicks wanted to leave and three more left very quickly
Chicks 2 & 3 – 09:17am and Chick 4 – 09:18am
And then there was one!
I did wonder if this young Great Tit would take a little while to leave, but no. Within a minute it was up at the entrance hole, took a look outside and was off!
After the last young Great Tit left there was silence. Gone was the noise of the active nest and it seemed strange and sad to think it was all over.
One of the parents did make a brief visit to the nest box entrance hole, around 30 minutes after the last young fledged. No more entries were made inside the box.
So finally I had a successfully Great Tits Nest.
Sometimes Great Tits can have a second brood, so I will keep an eye on the box for a while, just in case.
So this bring me to the end of the diaries for the 2025 season. I will now leave the website open for anyone that wishes to follow back through the story of a pair of Great Tits that built a nest, had seven eggs and managed to successfully raise five young Great Tits.
I am not sure if the 7th egg ever hatched and I will check the nest when I am allowed to.
As mentioned before, I have purchased two new camera bird boxes, and when allowed I will look at replacing the 20 year old boxes I have with these.
Once completed, I will update my website.
Before I go, I thought you may like to see a strange image the camera caught of one of the chicks leaving. It looks like there were two at the same time…… Spooky!
Enjoy your summer and being out with wildlife. See you later in the year
Ben
