And then it was gone! Where just a few days ago a mass of pleasing pink apple blossom adorned the tree, now there is just greenery. A graphic example of how quickly the season progresses, how transient these elements are. We sit in our centrally heated homes shaking our heads at the grey winter skies, longing for the welcome kiss of spring sunshine, yet when it arrives we can be overwhelmed, there seems so much to do, so many places to be that we seldom get a chance to fully appreciate the burst of life and energy all around. We blink and miss the moment, perhaps still struggling to notice the subtle signs of an advancing season before it’s almost over. The Nightingales I wrote about in the last post have probably now found mates, settled down and ceased their serenade. Cuckoos that happily seem more plentiful this year and delighted us with their self evident proclamations, will shortly be thinking about returning to Africa, their essential job completed for another year. As I write this, I can see the apple tree and find it hard to reconcile the fact that only a short week ago I spent several hours watching a pair of Great Tits use it as a stepping stone to launch towards their nest in a Swift box located under the eaves. Their worried churring , their ceaseless industry, has moved away from my immediate sphere. The chicks have fledged, dispersed around neighbouring gardens, at least the ones that managed to escape the attentions of the Magpies. 10 days of dawn to dusk activity no longer the focus of my attention; the birds have moved on and so must I.
Those Great Tits were interesting. At first they were wary of me sitting down close to their staging post, but after a while paid little attention, going about their business as though I didn’t exist. If, to vary the angle of photography, I moved the chair to a position they judged too close to an approach route, they immediately changed their exit direction to forage in another part of their territory. Never did I see them search for prey in the immediate vicinity of the nest, they always flew to other gardens to search for food. I couldn’t see exactly where they went, but am pretty sure the image below shows the rough extent of their territorial meanderings. It is quite a large area, necessarily so to ensure they find sufficient prey for their brood. By means of snapping away whenever they appeared with a beak full, I was able to get a rough idea of the kind of creatures they were finding and it was a surprising array of invertebrates. I have always been under the impression that Blue Tits and Great Tits largely depend on the larva of moths to feed their young, but judging by this pair that doesn’t seem to be the case. Perhaps my perception has been incorrect, or maybe the availability of moth larvae is severely depleted, but whatever the case it is clear that spiders made up a large percentage of prey items as can be seen in the images below.
Apart from spiders, other identifiable prey comprised moths, weevils, robber flies and what looked like suet. The birds visited the nest about once a minute on average, sometimes more frequently and at other times having a pause of several minutes presumably to feed/drink/bathe themselves. Let’s say conservatively that 30 items were brought to the nest box every hour between 6am and 8pm. That would give 300 prey items a day. Multiply that over a 10 day fledging period and we have 3000 prey items delivered by this one pair of diligent parents. Quite impressive. But it becomes even more so when you consider there are also Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Robins, Blackbirds and Wrens utilising the same general area. If they select prey at the same rate, then tens of thousands of invertebrates are gleaned from our own and neighbouring gardens during this intensive breeding period. A staggering fact.
This abundance is only made possible due to most gardens hereabouts being full of trees, shrubs and lots of quiet niches where the birds can hunt. Demonstrating clearly the value of allowing at least part of your plot to remain wild. Both my immediate neighbours enjoy the birds and hedgehogs and refrain from manicuring their plot to death. The rewards are mornings full of bird song, good numbers and variety of butterflies, dragonflies and moths and a sense of peace and tranquillity.
