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Blue Tit 2007
Blue
Tits 2007
21 March
Spring
began
but weather is always bad; wind, showers, hail.
She continues to adapt
her nest meticulously, here moving a sprig, there rejecting another
sprig, this time
directly right down the nesting box. She does not leave; she just
passes the
head by the entry and drops the sprig. It is a good idea in this bad
weather; moreover it gains time.
She tries the center of
the nest, lengthily.
The floor is still seen. She spreads out the straw over the entire nest. Then, the following day, she arranges the sprigs in a circle, with the largest outside and always keeping an empty circle in the center of the nest.
Compared to the last year nest, it seemed that that the one of this year, had less moss and much more straw. And moreover, we thought that the nest was in advance and would be finished well before the 2006 one. To check it I compared with the pictures of the nest of 2006 at the same date. It is startling; the memory is quite inaccurate…
Here at left, the 21 March 2006 nest... ...and at right the 21 March 2007 nest.
Perhaps there where more threads and feathers in 2006… but there are sprigs in both and they are similar if one disregard the differences in colour due to differences in lighting and centering of the photograph. The advance of the nest seems very similar. See the 22 March images.
22
March
Sunny
day
and all changes. 59 visits at 15h. He sings, she works.
Monsieur (note the wing position) comes to admire accomplished work. The scene takes 16 seconds, between 7h 49m 41 and 7h 49m 58.
Yea, not bad.
I think I heard someone.
OK, OK, I leave.
A second latter.
Now lets put a little order.
Moment of mellow and try. More and more often.
Followed by a little moss...
23 March
Very beautiful
morning. The wind has finally relented.
But
in this
beautiful morning, all-happy Ulysses, Penelope accepts him closer and
closer for
pretty private tete-a-tete. She roosts upside down to a small branch,
and he
alights, claws to claws, over her. I did not succeed to take them in
picture this
morning, too bad.
This a picture form the last year, from 9 Ppril 2006.
Since
early
this morning, 7h30, she does ceaseless coming and going to
bring
materials.
At 9h30 she makes a round trip each two minutes. She has found a true hoard.
Soft, fine and gray…
pigeon
In the foreground the feather is in place.
In
the
construction of the nest, the carcass seems completed. Now begins the
phase of
finer materials. The brushwood is finer. Its nest will become softer.
An
arrival, brushwood in
the beak.
24 March
Cold (4°), rain and wind. A very bad day. The weather is dark and cold.
The sparrows prepare their nest. Like last year, the sparrows like very much my asparagus, they mowed it. It must be now the fundament of a nest. I must consider putting something larger.
Relatively little visits all the day, 37. During the afternoon weather is so bad that we do not see anybody for long periods, during two hours from 16h to 18h.
In
spite of weather, she continues to bring fine materials, particularly
feathers which she which by chance she found dry.
25 March
Breaks
the
morning, a little more overcast in the afternoon,
He wanted to see into
the nesting box but, curiously and contrary to his habits, he did not
perch
himself to the door to look inside. Why this timidity? He tried to see
through
the entry hole perched on a small branch of the birch.
Then, as still he did
not see well, he perched on the roof of the nesting box and looked
suspended by
a leg to the top of the nesting box. Why not, isn't, when you are a
titmouse?
The
center
of the nest is now filled; we do not see anymore the wood. For several
days now,
she has not shuffled with its wings, materials to pack them. She makes
only
some minor adaptations.
We
see very
distinctly the form of the bowl of the nest: a space in the center with
the
shape of her body and, around, a solid padding where she can perch and
where she
will place to nourish her chicks.
A push on the wall and take off.
Relaxed,
a
leg ensures the safety, the other a good support, him in its usual
position to
look what happens inside.
With her usual schedule, she works. It is 19h45, summer-time of course. She brings feathers. The nest is really almost finished.
The image is in infra-red, because we seldom put the lighting, and we avoid it especially in the evening. When day is sunny, light entering by the door is enough to take pictures or videos from 11h through 15h without too many problems. Lighting is used only for short periods.
26
March
Superb day, at last.
Very blue sky.
Today is a white dawn day.
A bearded titmouse!
Cozy, isn't?
The center of the nest
is not situated in the center of the nesting box, but in the sun spot
which
enters through the entry hole between about 10h30 and 14h30. In the
same place
as the previous year. But this year, the position of the camera was
forestalled.
Is this position a random choice or the will to benefit from the sun?
The
photographs are in natural light.
Day's activities? Pick
at the entry hole. Our window was partially open today, and we heard TAC TAC
TAC of its beak!
In the nest, she always replaces a small brushwood, a moss, a feather. It is never perfect Watch VIDEO (208Ko, 15s)