Welcome to The Great Tits Nest Box Blog of (2001) This is the story of 2001 nesting season as it happend Pages 1 of 2

Wednesday 14th March 2001 - As you can see from the picture the Great Tits have started to build their nest using long pieces of dry grass. They started to bring things in at about 8:30am and then stopped at 9am as it started to rain heavily and it carried on all day. 

Friday 16th March 2001 - Some more dry grass has been brought in. Not very much but its a start. I think they are slow on building as the weather has turned cold. 

Tuesday 20 March 2001 - I saw only one visit to the box today. No doubt the return to winter conditions has disrupted progress on the nest. I wonder how the other birds are going to cope with this cold weather (max 1C and wet snow today) This cold snap has confused the birds. But I would think as soon as this cold snap has passed they will get back to the job of nest building.

 Friday 23rd March 2001 - Again, wet weather seems to be putting the brakes on the building progress. As you can see from the picture the Great Tits are very slowly adding dry grass to line the bottom of their nest box. You can see that Mum is building the foundations of the nest. The cold snap that we have been having is slowly going away for now. While it seems to be getting warmer we are have lots of rain and this is making it very difficult for the birds to find dry grass for their nest. This could well be why they are so slow building this year.

Sunday 25th March 2001 - Some warm weather has appeared this morning and as luck would have it the ground is dry!!

 Mum and Dad are very busy getting dry grass for the nest. I think they are making up for lost time. 

 Monday 26th March 2001 - As you can see from the picture half of the nest box bottom is now covered with dry grass. They have even added some moss today. It should not be long until they start to do work on the nest cup. Mind you this is like most things with wildlife it will very much depend on the weather! This afternoon it started to rain and they stopped for the afternoon. From what I have seen on the television we may be getting more rain this week. I think if it does rain this will slow nest building right down or even stop for a while! 

  Wednesday 28th March 2001 - Mum is getting down to work on nest building this morning. You can see that Mum will spread her wings out to get all the moss and grass just how she would like it. Dad will sometimes come by the entrance hole and pass her some more nesting materials. Yesterday the weather was not good at all! It rained for most of the day and there was very little action in the nest box. But it looks like today will be bright with the odd rain shower.      

Thursday 29th March 2001 - All morning Mum and Dad have been working on the nest. The bottom of the nest box is coved with dry grass and they are starting to work on the nest cup. There is no sign of any soft materials for the nest cup as yet. i.e. feathers sheep's wool e.c.t. But I would think it will not be long until they bring some in. There weather has been good this morning. Very sunny but it is getting continually cloudier!

Monday 2nd March 2001 - I think that the Great Tits have completed nest building. For the last few days there has been very little action in the nest box. This may be due to the bad weather that we are having at the time.

Thursday 5th April 2001 - There has been very little action in the nest box to day. Last night there were gale force winds. Also I had the female Great Tits roosting this is the first time she has since building nesting began.

Saturday 7th April 2001 - Still little action in the nest box. There has not been any more nesting materials being brought in. For the last two nights Mum has been roosting in the box. She may be getting ready to lay some eggs. I will be getting some images of Mum roosting soon.

Sunday 8th April 2001 - As you will know I had Mum roosting in the box last night. I am know pleased to say that she has laid her first egg of the year. If this year is going to be anything like last year then she will be laying one every morning from know on.

Wednesday 11th April 2001 - There are now three eggs from what I can see. Its sometimes very hard to see the eggs as Mum usually covers them up. I will be putting some images of inside the nest box soon!

Diary continues.... On Page 2

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