Elizabeth & Malcolm's
bluetit pages

Welcome to our bluetit diary

This web site is a diary of the breeding behaviour of bluetits and great tits in our garden in Mayford, Surrey since early 2001. Although for the first few years we only had bluetits occupying our boxes, for the last three years one of them has been occupied by a great tit family and this has given us an insight into how similar in behaviour the two species are.

The overview page gives the dates of the principal events, such as the start of nest building, egg laying, hatching and fledging. You can compare these dates with what is happening this year and see if climate change has had a noticeable effect in Mayford! Each year has its own Summary page which gives more details of the year's activities.

Keep up to date with our latest postings by clicking on Latest Entry. Alternatively, during the day you can watch what is happening now in our nest boxes by viewing the webcams.

The image at the top of the page was taken in June 2002 and shows the parents with their brood shortly before they fledged. The adult female is on the left and the male is on the right. Eleven eggs were laid in two groups with a gap of 16 days between them. Six chicks hatched and five flew the nest. This is a story of success when we had expected failure and a lesson to all those who think their nest has been deserted - don't give up hope too soon! (And DON'T INTERFERE - it's illegal anyway!)

If you are interested in our site, you may like to visit the Bigg Bird Forum at http://forum.biggonline.co.uk As well as joining in the discussions about general birding topics, you can also use it as an alternative way of giving and receiving feedback. Why not take a look?

This page was last updated on Saturday, 23 February 2008 21:53 Visitors since February 2002: