HCS Nature Watch 2012 Weekly Updates

8th June - Week 12

This week all of the Great Tits have fledged and left the nest! We have seen the female feed the fledglings - they get very excited when she brings in food. Their wings are now strong enough to fly and is was interesting to watch them prepare to leave the nest.
 
Fletch has been back to the bird feeder a lot this week. He always comes the same time each morning - about 7am. All the other regular visitors have been spotted although with the warmer weather there is plenty of food around and they are not coming onto the feeder as often as they were.

1st June - Week 11

We have been watching the bird box this week and saw the eggs hatch. It was really exciting. Radley, 3S

The eggs hatched last Thursday; there are 6 hatchlings. Excellent! The male and female have been feeding them. Nicky, 3S

I am really excited that there are some new hatchlings because I was very upset when the others died. Florence, 3S
 

25th May - Week 10

The eggs hatched this week.  Visit the gallery to see this week's new images.

18th May - Week 9
As part of their LOC work this week 5K have been keeping a detailed diary of events and learnt a lot about the behaviour of the birds during nesting.

Sunday: She stayed in her nest so she could make sure her chicks were lovely and warm. She even plucked some of her feathers to make the nest even warmer. There are six eggs in the nest. The male keeps coming in to feed the female. Zoe, 5K

Monday: 5:00am the female bird woke up and moved all the stuff around in her nest. At 6:00am the male came in and brought two bits of food. Sunnay, 5K

Tuesday: At 5:15 the female woke up and the male comes in at 5:26 to feed her. Female checks to see if the eggs are ok and warm. Hugh, 5K

Wednesday: The female great tit woke up at 5:15. The male brought food in at 5:40. The female bird will be doing this everyday till they hatch. William, 5K

We expect the eggs to hatch next week! Annabel, 5K

11th May - Week 8
I was very excited to see three new eggs.
The bird feeder has been really busy this week. There were lots of blue tits and great tits. Nutty nuthatch was also back on the feeder.  Jack, 3F
 
It has been fun seeing the mummy bird coming in and out of the box and laying her eggs. Olivia T, 3F
 
After the first clutch died, I was really hopeful for some more eggs. The parents have been busy fluffing up the nest for their babies. I can't wait to see them. Mille B, 3F
 
I am very happy that she laid new eggs in her cosy nest and I want to see them when they hatch. I can't wait to watch the hatchlings grow. Ben, 3F
 

4th May - Week 7
We have some very sad news about the baby Great tits. On Sunday the babies died because of the horrid weather. There was not enough food for them. The male and female have cleaned the nest. We all feel very sad but the adult great tits are alright. We hope that the female will lay more eggs. Honey, 2A

On Sunday the baby great tits died and the adult great tits have just moved on. We think this happened because of the weather and not enough food. George, 2A

We hope that the great tits will lay some more eggs and some new babies will hatch. Hopefully we will have warmer weather and there will be lots of insects for the babies to eat. Children in 2A


27th April - Week 6
Report by 4S
On the 22nd April this week, the mother bird was seen keeping her eggs warm and they finally began to hatch. The two birds are happily feeding the chicks. The wait is finally over! They have their babies. (By Charlie)

It was nice to see them hatch. It is funny to see them pick at the food and interesting to see how they live their lives. (By Emily)

It looked like the mother was guarding the eggs and the chicks and the father was getting the food! (By Alex)

20th April - Week 5
All this week the female great tit has been incubating the eggs laid earlier in the month - so far we have counted 8 eggs. The incubation time is between 11 and 15 days so we are waiting eagerly for them to hatch, which hopefully will be very soon! The male great tit has also been into the nest bringing food for the female. The birds are still eating plenty from the feeder and all the regular visitors have been seen this week.

Breaking News - 10th April
There are now 7 eggs in the nest box. Today was the first time they have been visible as they must have been buried in the nest material. She will incubate the eggs for about 12 days so towards the end of April we will hopefully have some new hatchlings to observe!

7th April - Week 4
Today I went on to the Bird Feeder cam and saw loads of birds - mainly Great Tits and Blue Tits. I went on the Nest Box cam and the nest is really coming along. Wonder when there will be eggs!? Eggciting!! Sophie, 6M

The Great Tit has spent much of the last week adding lots of soft material to the nest and is very active early morning and evening. She is spending most nights and a lot of the day in the box. Plenty of activity on the feeder with some chaffinches now among the regular visitors and 'friend of Fletch' (name needed!) also feeding most mornings. Mr. S

30th March - Week 3
This week we have seen lots of birds feeding on the nature cam. We especially like watching the great tits. We have seen two feeding at the same time! Also, we have seen lots of blue tits. The nest has moved around in the bird box but we have only seen a great tit in there once. We are hoping they will lay eggs soon! Year 1