Plume de Ville
- Home -
- Contact -
- Links ---
- Latest updates
-
---
Blue Tit 2007
Blue
Tits 2007
27 March
Very good weather. Beautiful blue sky as yesterday.
Gentle moments of tenderness.
The
weather is so nice this morning.
Here she calls him fluttering
the wings frantically and lying low on the branch. She uses the same
call with
the wings to ask him for food.
Careful featherdressing.
No head?
This morning, a little disorder in the nest! Feathers
and still more feathers.
In the afternoon, a great tit spent a few moments on the terrace to the great displeasure of our blue. Again, he defended his territory vigorously but had a hard time because the great tit did not intend to yield to him easily. The two adversaries shouted and clutched by the claws. Eventually, the visitor leaved. Competition between blue and coal can be fierce during the nesting period.
New materials for the nest!
At the end of the evening I see her arriving with an enormous gray tangled tuft in the beak which is 15-
She perches a very short moment on her birch branch and enters directly the nest… to come out right away. On the branch, the tangled tuft, which remained hooked.
She returns and tries to unhook the tuft. It looks like she has plundered the hairdressers of the area; the tuft really resembles to be hair!
28 March
She continues
to bring thin feathers for her nest and calmly remains long moments arranging
her feathers.
At the end
of the afternoon (it is 18h) I see a titmouse, perched on the prunus agitating
his wings in a tempting invitation. I think that it is her.
But, the
moment after, I see a titmouse moving towards the nesting box, it tries to look
trough the hole, perched at some distance and stretching out the neck; then it takes
of but it doesn't cling to the entry. Twice it hovers in front of the nest box,
approaching the entry hole as much as possible.
Then it roosts on the
nesting box. It is surely Ulysses who hovered and whom I saw agitating the
wings, because at this moment, Penelope enters directly in the nesting box.
The small tangled cluster of hair or threads which is seen hooked to the entry-hole is, perhaps, the cause of this curious attitude.
It can be
seen better on the enlarged photograph. He went first to examine the curious
object; no danger: she can enter.
18h17 18h43 18h45 19h05 19h09 19h27 19h48
She comes to bring her beakfuls of feathers. He accompanies her at each voyage and does not leave her.
20h02 another visit. They are both there on the terrace, it enters and exits. They remain there.
20 h06
They are both always
there. She is in the willow perched on a knot of one of the ropes which stay
our trees in case of strong wind and which can be sometimes seen on the
photographs. Unfortunately they are not very photogenic but quite useful to a
9th floor quite windy some days.
She is trying to pull out pieces of thread from a stay which has untwisted at the free end. He stays beside her quietly and observes. It starts to grow dark. It occurs something unusual. And we think we know what. Then we remain there, our dinner will wait. But out of question to take a photograph, the moment is important, not to disturb.
20h10
Time passes; she stopped
trying to tear off threads. She seems to gently fall asleep, she puffs her
feathers. He is always on the branch just above her. He doesn't move, doesn't
sing. All is calm.
20h11
She flies
away and enters the nesting box. He still doesn't move. We then see her turning
and turning again, arranging the nest, replacing a feather, turning again and
packing a little. In short, she adapts her pillows. She shuffles the feathers, she
gets ball round.
She puts
her head under the wing. Good night! Here is the first day when she comes to
sleep in the nest.
He remains
a long time without moving in the same place, now it is really dark.
Then he
flies away and perches beside the nesting box. He clings to the entry, throws a
small glance, calls very, very gently, returns to perch, waits a little then
returns at the entry, calls again gently, all nicely, then, it is 20h20, he flies
away to spend the night elsewhere. She is sound asleep.
WATCH VIDEO (736Ko 2:25 -Good night! )
We will leave the photo recording all the night. Last year we did not have an infra-red camera. To our surprise she moves very often, arranges her feathers and put to sleep again a few minutes. Ah! Those feathers! They itch. She did not leave during the night; however, the nest is clean!
This is not
a real video but a video built from pictures taken during a part of the night.
Time intervals are not respected strictly. The time elapsed while she is in golf
ball is longer than time when she moves. She settles in golf ball and remains
thus a few minutes (3-4 on average); it is not much, then arranges its feathers
and scratches (a photograph per second in this case). Does she sleep badly or,
as all the birds, is she always in alarm and sleeps with one eye open?
Watch VIDEO (506 Ko, 1:31) Night goes on.
29 March
It is before dawn and Ulysses is awake. He is there on the terrace, on the branch nearest to the nesting box and he sings, sings and sings. No lie-in for our neighbors. It is 6h 45.
He sings as
much as he can. In the nesting box, there is no echo, she doesn't care. He bawls
all his best, approaches more and more to the entry and bugles more and more.
At last, towards 7h11 she moves a feather. Arrange hers feathers lengthily, stretches and finally she leaves to 7h15 to his great joy, they both leave immediately.
Watch VIDEO (486Ko, 2:06) AWAKENING.
They return regularly in the morning. At 10h, two matings on the terrace but still no photographs. Well, patience!
She brings always soft stuff and spends long moments thoughtful in the nest.
Now he always accompanies her, he does not leave her any more.
The previous year the first night in the nest was on April 1st, (yes: the first) and she spent all nights in the nest one week before first egg. Let us hope that this year weather will be less cold than in 2006.
Even if the nest is quite cozy!
At the end of the afternoon the weather is overcast and it rains. Dark arrives early.
She enters to lie down at 19h45. He does not wait for long; he goes to look at the entry and flies away to sleep elsewhere.
After half an hour of adaptation to her taste she puts the head under the wing.
It sleeps and awakes regularly all the night. Maybe a quieter night. She sleeps 20 to 30 minutes without moving.