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Post by starling78 on Apr 4, 2022 11:54:24 GMT
Excellent photos and video Pete, the robins have grown so fast! won't be long before they fledge by the looks of things, I'm hoping I have a robin nest soon as a pair keep visiting the garden and the female keeps disappearing into the conifer near the kitchen window so fingers crossed!
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Post by karenupnorth on Apr 4, 2022 13:33:32 GMT
Just been looking through your pics, I haven't been on for a few days we sadly lost our beloved Cavalier King Charles...Sofi last week and so have been not feeling much interest, but it is lovely to see the Robin babies doing so well. Thanks for sharing Pete, ope they fledge successfully.
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Post by pete11 on Apr 4, 2022 15:24:37 GMT
Excellent photos and video Pete, the robins have grown so fast! won't be long before they fledge by the looks of things, I'm hoping I have a robin nest soon as a pair keep visiting the garden and the female keeps disappearing into the conifer near the kitchen window so fingers crossed! That sounds very promising! We had blackbirds in next door's conifer/cypress next to our fence last year - I think those kind of trees must give great cover. Fingers crossed for you!
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Post by pete11 on Apr 4, 2022 15:26:52 GMT
Just been looking through your pics, I haven't been on for a few days we sadly lost our beloved Cavalier King Charles...Sofi last week and so have been not feeling much interest, but it is lovely to see the Robin babies doing so well. Thanks for sharing Pete, ope they fledge successfully. Ah sorry to hear that Karen. Hope the robins provide some pleasant diversion. I think fledging must be v close - a few days at most. I only hope the trail cam is sensitive enough to capture the moment(s). It only just about springs into action when an adult bird whizzes past. I'll miss them when they're flown that's for sure!
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Post by pete11 on Apr 4, 2022 16:11:00 GMT
Day 16 of BT nest 'build' and she's still fiddling about. I'm guessing she's just biding her time now waiting for the best time to start laying eggs. Robin chicks are about 12 days old now so pretty much ready to fledge? Murky old day today weather-wise, so not much action as the trail cam lens had rain droplets on it most of the morning and the light was dull. On sunny days the fence on the opposite side of the garden has acted as the perfect reflector beaming sunlight across into the nest - makes for good pics. 2 pics from yesterday: Two from today:
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Post by Ann70 on Apr 4, 2022 17:13:15 GMT
Pete Great to have two nests to watch you will miss the robins hope they fledge safely and you see them around your garden.😊🤞🏻
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Post by pete11 on Apr 4, 2022 21:11:20 GMT
Pete Great to have two nests to watch you will miss the robins hope they fledge safely and you see them around your garden.😊🤞🏻 Hope I do see them about! I’ll post some more robin stuff tomorrow.
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Post by pete11 on Apr 5, 2022 21:31:19 GMT
More robin stuff as promised. Dull murky weather today so light not very good, so pics not quite as clear as they could be. Chicks are 13 days old I'm guessing - so very very close to fledging. Tomorrow could be THE day? Or Thursday?
Here's a link to a playlist of 5 video clips. One of the clips (number 2 I think) shows a chick clambering out of the nest and sitting on the edge, looking very well-developed! www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHCN4Ahs7q3TndxfeefsgoRt3x64PUqIQ
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Post by pete11 on Apr 5, 2022 22:35:14 GMT
BT action same as yesterday…. she’s 17 days into building and still fiddling and fussing bringing mostly feathers but also bits of moss and grassy stuff. Ah well….
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Post by sammi on Apr 6, 2022 7:42:41 GMT
Hope those chubby little darlings fledge safely. Haven't they done well
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Post by pete11 on Apr 6, 2022 8:13:49 GMT
Just seen a fledgling in the garden this morning hiding low down in some foliage. Parent bird came and fed it. Now it's fluttered up into thick ivy away from view.
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Post by Ann70 on Apr 6, 2022 8:19:54 GMT
Good news Pete,I expect you will have footage of them leaving later, hope they stay safe 😊
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Post by pete11 on Apr 6, 2022 11:21:05 GMT
Ok well here are the last pics of the robin chicks in the nest - there seem only to be two of them visible. These are screen grabs of the few clips recorded at about 0630 this morning. Last pic shows the empty nest: The trail cam didn't pick up any nice leaving-the-nest moments unfortunately. It looks as if the fledging time wasn't without incident , as this video shows.... (see below) One chick is making a bid for the ivy to the right of the box, and seems to make it ok, leaving one chick in the box. But there are very distinct signs of an imminent threat, as there are two large rustling sounds and ivy moving as if being pulled, accompanied by a lot of warning/alarm calls from parent birds (and not just robins calling by the sound of it). Having played this over a few times, my theory is that a cat or fox was right below the nest box at the time, waiting for fledglings to descend. There are two waterproof boxes of electrics and internet stuff on the ground directly below this nest box, and the first big sound halfway through the video clip sounds like something hitting theses boxes. The second big sound is of rustling and you can see the ivy being pulled - I think it's likely the cat(?) was attempting to climb up from below, dragging the ivy with it. There's some kind of associated movement in the ivy where the fledgling crept off to (to the right of the frame) at this point, so I don't know if that fledging managed to cling on safely or not. All a bit of a mystery as to what happened. However, at least one fledgling clearly survived this moment, as I saw it later on in the morning. The trail cam takes a while to reset itself after each trigger, so it wasn't the ideal thing to be capturing today's action really.
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Post by pete11 on Apr 6, 2022 12:13:05 GMT
Question now is: what to do with the nest box/nest. Should I leave it alone until September? Or clear it out ready for perhaps another prospective pair?
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Post by Ann70 on Apr 6, 2022 12:26:38 GMT
I have robins every year use the same ivy bush over the boundary fence and nest at least twice each season, that is just left to them and nature Pete. think they will take care of the nest if it’s needed again
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Post by suep on Apr 6, 2022 14:54:21 GMT
Hopefully they all fledged successfully Pete and will show up in a day or so. These little birds do seem to instinctively hide as soon as they are out of the box. Well i’m Staying positive anyway cause I don’t like to think of the alternatives. Sue
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Post by sammi on Apr 6, 2022 19:27:01 GMT
I'm with Sue on this Pete. I'm hoping they are all safely tucked away in the ivy somewhere waiting for meals on wings from Mum and Dad. Have you got a stock of live mealworms ready as you really will have them eating out of your hands with these mouths to feed.
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Post by pete11 on Apr 6, 2022 22:01:26 GMT
I'm with Sue on this Pete. I'm hoping they are all safely tucked away in the ivy somewhere waiting for meals on wings from Mum and Dad. Have you got a stock of live mealworms ready as you really will have them eating out of your hands with these mouths to feed. I have had a box of mealworms on the go in the last week - I tried holding out some in my hand a few times and the parent birds were really curious but just didn't quite have the courage to take them from my hand. I had a shallow plastic tray which I loaded up with a lot and they were happy to take them when it was right next to me sitting on the ground. One more sighting of a fledgling lurking under some bits of wood earlier this afternoon. The parents are still around looking as if they're standing guard, and doing that slow, quiet single-note whistle reassurance noise they make. Meanwhile, Day 18 of BT nest build faffing/fussing - still bringing in feathers and wriggling and fiddling about. It's making the robins look like high-achievers by comparison! In the time it's taken this female BT to get this far, the robins' first brood of the year is done and dusted!
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Post by pete11 on Apr 7, 2022 7:41:46 GMT
Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of my diy trail cam modification, which I used to get closer focus on the robin nest. It worked far better than I thought it would. The lens from the cheap reading glasses is a +2.0 I did try two lenses stacked together and this still worked but the focus point was too close for my purposes. I made a frame out of garden wire which I could slip over the top of the camera body to hold the lens right over the camera's built-in lens. The robins quickly started using the camera as a handy perching point to allow them to wait for the other parent to finish feeding the chicks before taking their own turn. Camera is a Ceyomur CY70 and I only had it set to 1080p despite it having higher resolution options....this was to save batteries across the day.
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Post by pete11 on Apr 7, 2022 7:44:59 GMT
Little bundles of black electrical tape used to pack the lens in the frame on either side.
Perching robins did knock the frame off the cam at one point so I ended up using more electrical tape to tape it to the cam once in place
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Post by Taz on Apr 7, 2022 18:02:21 GMT
That's genius Pete, love that idea
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Post by pete11 on Apr 9, 2022 10:50:05 GMT
Day 21 of the BT nest 'build'... she left very very early yesterday morning, before 0530... and I saw a lot of BT chasing about and calling to each other in the afternoon in the garden. Then this morning, she left a bit later around 0600 but, came back inside around 0630, closely followed by the male, who popped in and fed her. He came back shortly afterwards and fed her again. She stayed sitting there for a good 15 minutes, with a bit of fussing and pulling at material around her, but also closing eyes periodically. I wondered if she was in the process of laying an egg, but when she finally got up and left I couldn't see anything buried in the feathers and fluff. She popped back in briefly at 1030 but nothing more as yet.
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benn
Senior Member
Posts: 143
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Post by benn on Apr 9, 2022 12:03:40 GMT
Ingenius idea re the lens Pete! Hope your Robins were ok, Blue tits looking good!
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Post by suep on Apr 9, 2022 15:11:41 GMT
Well done with your clever adaptation to your lens Pete. Where there’s a will there’s a way. 👍🏻 Sue
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Post by pete11 on Apr 9, 2022 16:45:13 GMT
No more BT activity in the box today since 10.30am.... very odd day so far!
EVENING UPDATE: She finally returned around 7pm for a bit more fussing & fiddling, before settling down to roost. Does make me wonder about her being away for so long (8 hrs) during the day - maybe feeding up before the real work begins? Or scouting/assessing the weather/insect status?
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