First time box + camera - comments welcome
Mar 3, 2021 11:38:07 GMT
karenupnorth and YorksherLass like this
Post by pete11 on Mar 3, 2021 11:38:07 GMT
Hello - just posting this to invite any comments from those with more experience of these things...
Until the end of Jan this year I had an old Gardman box in a silver birch tree at the bottom of my garden about 3m up the trunk.
I'd almost forgotten about it until at the start of 2021 I saw a pair of blue tits thoroughly checking it out, going inside, etc. This happened on at least two occasions during Jan.
So I decided to upgrade
Got a Green Feathers setup: a wifi camera in one of their 'deluxe chalet' boxes.
I installed it in more or less the same place as the old box, but turned it slightly to face in a more north/east direction.
The same evening I'd installed it I started getting motion alerts - a Great Tit poked its head in early evening on the first day.
Then lots of extremely tentative head-poking-in events by a single Blue Tit in the weeks that followed, until, on 18th Feb, I checked the camera feed in the morning and lo and behold I had a proper investigation going on by a pair of Blue Tits - with one actually going into the new nest box
with the other one hanging around very briefly outside on the entrance hole.
This happened two or three times that same day.
Next day (19th): a few more very thorough head-poking-in visits by one bird.
But: since then, only the very briefest of landings on the entrance hole, and the odd head poking in, at most two times a day.
In fact, visits (if you can even call them that) seem to have completely tailed off in the past few days.
I see at least one pair of Blue Tits around the garden and neighbours' gardens every day, going back and forth visiting all the various feeding stations people have. So they haven't disappeared. But they seem to have completely lost interest in my nest box.
I guess this is just the way it goes - reading other threads on here there doesn't seem to be much predictability to the choice of nest box for these birds.
Should I abandon hope this year? I know it's still a bit early, but time's ticking on!
Any thoughts welcome!
Until the end of Jan this year I had an old Gardman box in a silver birch tree at the bottom of my garden about 3m up the trunk.
I'd almost forgotten about it until at the start of 2021 I saw a pair of blue tits thoroughly checking it out, going inside, etc. This happened on at least two occasions during Jan.
So I decided to upgrade
Got a Green Feathers setup: a wifi camera in one of their 'deluxe chalet' boxes.
I installed it in more or less the same place as the old box, but turned it slightly to face in a more north/east direction.
The same evening I'd installed it I started getting motion alerts - a Great Tit poked its head in early evening on the first day.
Then lots of extremely tentative head-poking-in events by a single Blue Tit in the weeks that followed, until, on 18th Feb, I checked the camera feed in the morning and lo and behold I had a proper investigation going on by a pair of Blue Tits - with one actually going into the new nest box
with the other one hanging around very briefly outside on the entrance hole. This happened two or three times that same day.
Next day (19th): a few more very thorough head-poking-in visits by one bird.
But: since then, only the very briefest of landings on the entrance hole, and the odd head poking in, at most two times a day.
In fact, visits (if you can even call them that) seem to have completely tailed off in the past few days.
I see at least one pair of Blue Tits around the garden and neighbours' gardens every day, going back and forth visiting all the various feeding stations people have. So they haven't disappeared. But they seem to have completely lost interest in my nest box.
I guess this is just the way it goes - reading other threads on here there doesn't seem to be much predictability to the choice of nest box for these birds.
Should I abandon hope this year? I know it's still a bit early, but time's ticking on!
Any thoughts welcome!