THE NESTING BOX OR BIRDS IN THE BRAMLEY

A few weeks ago in May there was a loud chirping in the nesting box high up in our Bramley apple tree at the bottom of the garden. And then we spotted a couple of blue tits to-ing and fro-ing around the box – obviously Mummy and Daddy blue tit bringing food for their babies, probably a few insects and tiny scraps. Our first reaction was delight that the box was in use, closely followed by anxiety as we have a cat and our neighbours have two, plus a good viewing platform from the roof of a shed just beneath. My husband quickly placed a thick band of sticky green tape around the trunk of the tree – supposed to keep the bugs at bay but also to help prevent Smokey, our cat, from climbing up and disturbing the birds – or worse…. Actually, he showed little interest in the treetop happenings and the chirping and feeding continued morning and evening undisturbed. On one visit down the garden we noticed a pile of nest debris on the ground below – fluffy soft clumps of wool and feathers, compacted and held together with bits of moss.
Suddenly, about 2 to 3 weeks later, all sounds ‘aloft’ ceased and we saw no more parent feeding activities. After a couple of days we took a quiet peek in the box and found the tiny egg pictured below from which a baby fledgling had recently hatched and successfully flown away. I’ve placed the little blue tit egg beside a ‘Medium’ hen’s egg to give an idea of size, and included a photo of the nesting box up in the Bramley apple tree.
Finally I’ve attached a poem and sketch from our time in France when I found an almost perfect nest lying in the tree covered lane up above our house in August 2017.

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