Our Baby birds have flown!!

[mary]

God what a day.....

3 weeks ago, a Blue Tit and mate decided to make a nest in the wall around our garden.  Keeping our 'Border Terrier' - Jenson away, has been quite a feet.  Firstly to stop him getting Mum and Dad as the make their nest, and then when they hatched and were continually chirping, he was more than interested in climbing up on to the wall to put his paw in a scoop them out.  Had to put a stop to this

I get the O.H to drill nails in the side of the wall and wrap wire in lengths along it, so Jenson can't get jump up on to the wall.  Kids aren't allowed to play football near the wall, and I can't water the plants in the pts, incase it goes into the nest.!!

Now nearly week 3, lots of chirping, keep checking daily to see if any are coming out of the nest..   Hear squarking, and Mum has encouraged one of the babies out of the nest, fallen onto the floor and Jenson has it in his mouth.    Dead!!!.  Jenson now on lead in garden.  Watch from Bathroom window as Mum encourages more out.... Off they fly.   Check over the rest of the day, and all have gone.  Check the nest, to find 3 dead Chicks with feathers and one is very weak.  Hope mum may come back, check a hour later and it's dead......

Gave the garden the all clear...let jenson off his lead, and would you believe it, one of the chickes had come back in the garden and Jenson has it in his mouth...Dead.....

What a day..... 5 dead chicks...what is the survival rate.  Aparently they can lay up to 11 eaggs, so perhaps 6 made it.

Tomorrow, O.H is going to get some expanding foam to fill the hole in the wall....I can't got through this again. 

Poor mum and Dad...Did any of their offspring make it???

[chris pp]

Probably not by the sounds of things.

Chris

[ventodue]

[quote user="vida "] Tomorrow, O.H is going to get some expanding foam to fill the hole in the wall....I can't got through this again. [/quote]

I understand your anguish, Vida, but this really isn't the best response, you know ... [:)]  There is every chance the pair will attempt to raise a second brood, so blocking up a potential nest site - even if it is dangerous one - won't help at all.  It would be much better to hide or disguise it some more.

Also, don't fret too much.  The reason some animals have a lot of offspring is because the mortality rate is naturally high.  Of those 11 youngsters, very few, if any, will have made it hrough to next year, anyway - otherwise, we'd all be suffering from a plague of Blue Tits!

Also, if there were 3 young left in the nest, there was something going wrong anyway - possibly a shortage of food, but who knows?

Amicalement

Craig

[splishsplash]

Whilst on the subject of baby birds & nests, can anyone tell me if we should clear out our nesting boxes in the Autumn?

They are occupied with blue tits at the moment, but I wasn't sure if we needed to clean them out once they vacate!