A bird in hand

Delighted to report that one of our bird boxes on the outside of our bungalow, which has a camera inside it, managed to attract a pair of Great Tits who are in the process of producing a young family.

Some weeks ago we managed to see six eggs; then about three weeks ago, they hatched out. Now the youngsters are almost ready to fly. They have stopped being helpless and squirmy. They no longer appear as open mouths which may have a body attached to them and are now at the getting bolshy stage with each other and almost ready to leave the nest.

The whole operation has been watched, I feel with eager anticipation by our family and friends, by other feathered visitors to the garden and by the two dreadfully exhausted looking adult birds who have been back and forth transporting grubs and green caterpillars to the offspring.

Unusually, in our experience, all six young birds appear to be healthy and almost ready to fledge.

Inevitably they seem to do so though when we are away from the monitor in my study, so I decided to publish the pictures just before they leave, on this blog.

If we see them go I will follow up with a “How we got on in the big wide world” blog, but such a publication is usually not possible because of their rapid departure and immediate disappearance into the voluminous hedge which separates our home form the surrounding fields.

So enjoy while you can…possibly more later…but don’t hold your breath!