I still owe you an update on the great tit nest. It’s a bit late, but at the moment I have a bit of work to do in the garden again, so I don’t always get to write an update here in the blog. But now the news about the great tit nest:

Our great tit mum doesn’t really seem to be serious about breeding this year.

After she didn’t come into the nest for hours the last few days and even didn’t spend the night in the box the last few nights, leaving the eggs exposed for hours, I grabbed a torch and shone a light through the eggs. It turned out that all 3 eggs showed no signs of development inside, so it can be assumed that they were unfertilised.

Yesterday I also decided to clean the nest box to provide the best starting conditions for a second attempt.

In the last photo you can see what accumulates under a nest over time. Heaps of parasites. That is why I clean a nest box after the first brood in order to avoid having these parasites in the new nest for a second attempt.

Of course, this is only possible because my nest boxes are equipped with cameras and so I can see when the nest has been abandoned and can remove it.

Now we can only hope that another titmother will be found to start a new attempt. Fingers crossed