I had been keeping an eye on our oak tree so we could do our spring tree study when it was just bursting into bud, but it seemed to be a lot later than the other trees in the garden. Guess what - we got back from a weeks holiday in Scotland and found it was completely green - everything in the garden had grown so much with the sunshine!
The oak doesn't have any low branches and I kept forgetting to ask Paul to get the ladder to climb up to cut off a twig for us to observe more closely so we didn't really manage to catch it at the bud stage! Best laid plans and all that. Anyway we had a look at the nature detectives twig sheet at what the buds were like. I am amazed at how different they are and that you can identify a tree from its buds.
The boys filled in their spring tree sheets from handbookofnaturestudy with their observations.
We have enjoyed watching the squirrels chasing round the branches of the oak tree it has such great branches for a game of chase!
When we returned from our holiday we were really excited to notice that a pair of great tits had moved into one of our nesting boxes. The boys made 3 nesting boxes and they have been up for 3 years now without being used. We did have some birds investigating one last year but to no avail. So as you can imagine it is thrilling to finally have some residents in one of the boxes!
I thought i'd spotted some birds going into the nest box with twigs in their mouth before we went away but they must have built it quickly and laid their eggs and been incubating them as we could hear baby birds cheeping on the Sunday we got home. Great tits normally lay between 7 - 15 eggs! and the female incubates them for 13-14 days. This is what they look like
It's been amazing watching the parents go in and out, in and out of the nest box constantly with caterpillars for the baby birds. The cheeping got very loud when one of the parents entered the nest box. Here's one of them about to pop in and then with just the tail sticking out! What good parents they've been.
Here the bird has just come out of the box.
I found this great website about great tits nesting. I would have loved to have a peep in the box but didn't want to disturb them so here are a few images from the site of what may have been in there:
Look at this little fellow - how cute.
We watched these videos about:
nest building
Chicks hatching
Chicks fledging
I think our chicks have fledged this weekend. They have chosen a glorious weekend as the weather has been lovely and sunny here and we have been out lots so have missed seeing them; but I did catch sight of one young looking tit hanging onto one of the apple tree stakes looking round as though it was trying to work out what to do next! What a task - to jump out of the box and hope you can fly!
I wonder how many there were and how they are getting on? I guess I will never know.
Amy's painting
Post script 8th June
Had a peep in the nest box while the ladders were out at the weekend and here is what we saw
What a beautifully constructed nest - so intricate and soft for the baby birds to be born in. AMAZING.
We will clean it out when we are sure they are not going to have another brood.
We have just returned from a week away in Scotland staying on the edge of Loch Achray. It was so beautiful and so peaceful.
Look at the view from our window
Day 1
The boys had a fly fishing lesson with Morris the ghillie and we explored around the loch.
Dry land fishing
Amy didn't want to be left out!
Day 2
We set off to explore the next day visiting the The Lodge Forest Visitor centre We followed the waterfall trail with the boys on bikes and us on foot. Here are some of the highlights:
Day 3
A bike ride on one of the trails through Loch Ard forest and by the loch. The weather surprised us - it was really sunny - but we could see snow on top of some of the nearby mountains!
Then a trip into Aberfoyle; we arrived just in time to see a sheep dog showing off his herding skills with some ducks and to hear a talk about Scottish sheep
Day 4
We visited Callander, the nearest town and had a wet walk to Bracklinn falls
Primroses were dotted around throughout the woodlands
Day 5
We headed up Ben A'an (1491 feet) . A steep and difficult climb but worth it for the spectacular views.
Looking back at Loch Achray
Ben A'an is the hill to the left
Day 6
A bike ride to Loch Katrine
The boys had a few evenings fishing on the pond and we enjoyed some rainbow trout one day for our tea
