slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
[QUOTE 3683302, member: 9609"]how sad, i wonder what the reason was. parent killed ?
Box in a sunny spot ? they can sometimes cook if the box is not in some shade.
May be some parasites in there - if you are sure its all over, I would take the box down and give it a deep clean (rinse it out with domestos then dry the inside with a blow torch or hot air gun, singe the inside of the box, make sure any parasites in there are toast) - still time for it to get reused this year.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for your suggestions. The box has some shade because it's on one of the centre branches of a cherry tree and is surrounded by outer branches that have some leaves. It's also north-facing and quite well exposed to the largely gently breezes in our urban garden. When we came back on Monday night, there were no signs of any chicks but Mrs Tit was sitting on the nest. She hasn't been back since Tuesday morning. It's all a bit of a mystery. I think that I'll wait until Sunday and then clean and disinfect the nest. I suspect that it's too late for some new tenants this year because Spring has been quite mild down here and the birds started nesting early.
Although it's very sad that they have all gone, they gave us an enormous amount of pleasure over the last few months. I never had much of an interest in birds previously but now I'm fascinated by them.
Box in a sunny spot ? they can sometimes cook if the box is not in some shade.
May be some parasites in there - if you are sure its all over, I would take the box down and give it a deep clean (rinse it out with domestos then dry the inside with a blow torch or hot air gun, singe the inside of the box, make sure any parasites in there are toast) - still time for it to get reused this year.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for your suggestions. The box has some shade because it's on one of the centre branches of a cherry tree and is surrounded by outer branches that have some leaves. It's also north-facing and quite well exposed to the largely gently breezes in our urban garden. When we came back on Monday night, there were no signs of any chicks but Mrs Tit was sitting on the nest. She hasn't been back since Tuesday morning. It's all a bit of a mystery. I think that I'll wait until Sunday and then clean and disinfect the nest. I suspect that it's too late for some new tenants this year because Spring has been quite mild down here and the birds started nesting early.
Although it's very sad that they have all gone, they gave us an enormous amount of pleasure over the last few months. I never had much of an interest in birds previously but now I'm fascinated by them.
. We'd put the mealworms out earlier in the evening but I was knackered and fell asleep and didn't open the feeders at dusk (the blackbirds have learnt that there is a free meal in there). Went out at around midnight to loud grunting noises and found these two. Opened the feeders and left them to it.
