You Wait Ten Years For A Blue Tit To Turn Up, Then Seven Appear At Once
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What success did Michael have with his garden nestbox?
Terence Flanding is going to join us now. He's talking about a bird very close to my heart. Any idea what it is? Close to your heart? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I know that you like dippers very much. Colour blue. Colour blue. Kingfishers? Blue tits. Blue tits. Terence, how are you? Yes, Derek, you're right. No, I'm right. A bird that's very close to my heart. Terence. Yes, exactly. Well, we had an email in from Michael O'Reilly. Michael lives in Terranure. And he bought a nest box with a camera ten years ago. And he set it up. And guess what? Well, the blue tits came in, presumably.
Why did it take ten years for Blue Tits to return?
No, nothing happened. Nothing happened. All right, OK. It's 10 years ago, right? OK, OK. And then the following year, guess what happened? Nothing. Nothing happened again. And nothing happened for three or four years. So he gave up on it and he left it there. And the box was up on the wall. Didn't bother looking at the camera at all. And then last year, he was out in the garden and he saw some activity at the bird box and he was excited. And guess what happened? Blue tits came in. No, nothing happened again. Oh. I'll go get on with the thing. And then this year, it's happened. Ten years later. So I recently met Michael and his wife Valerie to check it out. Where do they live? Tara Neura said it at the beginning. Oh, did you?
Sorry, I wasn't listening.
What changes occurred in the garden that attracted Blue Tits?
Terry, OK, come on. I'll tell you what to do. We'll go out here into the back garden and I want you to see our nest box. Come on, let's go. That's been there for so long. There's a chair there. If you sit there now and keep your eye out behind you.
Right. We have a lovely garden. Lots of lovely flowers.
Valerie is the gardener here. I'm the labourer in the vineyard.
How did Michael's experience with the nestbox evolve over the years?
Oh, I can see your nest box. It's up over my head. And that's been there for at least 10 years. Right. And religiously, for the first, I'd say, three or four years, I connected to the television in the sitting room. You have a camera in it as well. We have a camera in the nest box. And we bought it in a German discounter. Right. Valerie rang me from the supermarket. I said, buy it for sure. And it's up there. And it's at least 10 years, maybe more. And for three years, I sat on the couch looking at a blank screen. Oh, no. And I said, oh, is that a blade of grass? Is that nest material? No, it was a cobweb. And so for three years, I watched it and maybe a fourth. And then after that, I'd have a look the odd time.
Nothing. And last year, I was sitting here on the patio, on the garden chair, and I just said, what the bloody hell is that noise? And I heard... what's that tapping? What's that noise? And I looked up and I see a great tit on the next box. tapping at the hole and it actually went into the nest box I said oh I thought they weren't supposed to be able to fit in there that's what he might have been doing he might have been trying to expand the hole he was trying to make the hole bigger I think so it would be suitable for him because I did read previously that the nest box for a great tit has a bigger hole so anyway I was watching him and I said that's great get the camera out looked in the cobweb was still there there was nothing else there and I watched it for a few weeks and nothing happened
So this year, and I was here about two weeks ago, and a bird came here from our apple tree here. I looked up. I said, has that gone into the nest box?
Yeah.
I couldn't tell. A few days later, it was sitting here again. And I see a blue tit came into the apple tree. Went to another branch and another branch and another branch. And it looked to me like it was picking things up. Right. Like it was picking up little insects. Flew in straight into the box.
What does the live feed reveal about the Blue Tits' behavior?
Oh. I said, fantastic. I was delighted.
We can't see them from here, but we can see them from inside.
Inside. Come on in. I'll show you. We have it switched on in there now. Would life happen?
Right.
and this is our breakfast room and in our dining room I have an old telly set up there that's on all the time doesn't interfere with anybody else's viewing and we can see inside it we can see inside it a number of chicks I can't see how many exactly there and we had our five chicks I took a little video of it and sent it to my family we had our five chicks baldy little things and when I look more recently
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What success did Michael have with his garden nestbox?
0:00–0:33
2
Why did it take ten years for Blue Tits to return?
0:33–1:14
3
What changes occurred in the garden that attracted Blue Tits?
1:14–1:36
4
How did Michael's experience with the nestbox evolve over the years?
1:36–3:35
5
What does the live feed reveal about the Blue Tits' behavior?
3:35–10:09
6
How do Blue Tits care for their chicks?
10:09–13:55