| Diary blue tit nestbox: 2018/04/14 - from today no over night great tit in the blue tit nestbox 2018/11/01 - a great tit in the blue tit nestbox 2019/03/22 - The first pieces of moss in the blue tit nestbox! 2019/05/17 - Two young bird fledged, no over night guest in winter 2020/04/01 - Great tits begin to build a nest, the narrow entrance doesn't bother them 2020/04/07 - Since tonight the great tit stays over night 2020/04/13 - Six eggs 2020/04/15 - Eight eggs, breeding begin 2020/04/26 - Two young birds 27.04.2020 - Six young birds 14.05.2020 - Four chicks fledge 17.05.2020 - The other two ones are waiting and fledge today 14.11.2020 - Since today a great tit stays over night in the nextbox 28.03.2021 - Nest-building start 12.04.2021 - 5 eggs 13.04.2021 - 6 eggs 14.04.2021 - Start breeding 21.04.2021 - No more eggs visible in the morning, predators? 28.04.2021 - Nest removed, 5 eggs were still there, very strange 29.04.2021 - Now a great tit builds a nest! 07.05.2021 - 7 eggs, start breeding 26.05.2021 - No young bird, nest abandoned |
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| Diary great tit nestbox: |
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(Older entries are listed here!) 2018/04/09 - For the first time no great tit at home tonight  2018/04/11 - Starting nest-building 2018/04/17 - from today no over night great tit, but still sometimes here during the day 2018/05/16 - nest-building since three days, first egg tonight 2018/05/22 - 7 eggs 2018/05/23 - 8 eggs 2018/06/02 - The first young birds 2018/06/10 - I'm counting 5 little great tits 
 2018/06/19 - 5 birds fledged! Day 17, never so early. 4 birds at noon, followed by the smallest in the afternoon (rightmost photo) Flying to the near plum tree, cheeping for more food from mama... 2018/10/28 - Late after a warm summer and autumn, the first visit of a great tit in the nestbox! Temperature at night marginal above 0°C 2019/03/20 - Some moss in the box, nest-building begins 2019/03/25 - A piece of wood from behind the entrance lies in the moss. The great tit doesn't make it alone to get it out, so I climbed the ladder and helped out 2019/04/08 - The first egg 2019/04/16 - Seven eggs, breeding start! 2019/04/30 - the little great tits arrived 2019/05/18 - Only one young bird remaining, flapping its wings, but mama can't lure 2019/05/19 - Email from a viewer: she recognized the claw is caught by something 2019/05/19 - I carefully open the nestbox, mama escapes and I am able to rescue the youngster! Fine hairs from the nest were wrapped around the claw, I placed the bird underneath the nestbox observed by its mama. After a short while both are vanished. 2019/10/21 - A new overnight guest in the nestbox 2020/03/18 - Best spring weather, the great tit begins to carry moss into the nestbox 2020/04/07 - First egg 2020/04/09 - Two eggs 2020/04/18 - Nine eggs, breeding begin 2020/04/19 - Ten eggs 2020/04/28 - First fledglings 2020/04/29 - Five youngsters 2020/04/30 - Eight! 2020/05/11 - Very low temperatures with night frost 2020/05/12 - One young bird after the other dies. Because of the frostiness? 2020/05/14 - This night the last great tit dies... 2020/05/21 - A new nest! 2020/05/25 - First egg 2020/05/31 - Seven eggs 2020/06/11 - The first fledgling 2020/07/02 - Two young birds fledge in the early morning! 2020/08/13 - A great tit builds a new nest, quite late in the year I think 2020/09/10 - Sometimes the great tit is in the nestbox and stays over night 2020/10/03 - Since today the great tit stays over night regularly 2021/03/22 - Improving nest, soft padding 2021/04/05 - 7 eggs 2021/04/06 - 8 eggs 2021/04/07 - Breeding start 2021/04/20 - All 8 young birds hatched! 2021/05/10 - 4 young birds fledged, one ready chick dead in the nestbox 2021/05/12 - Nest removed, two hours later a great tit builds a new nest! 2021/05/15 - First egg 2021/05/21 - 7 eggs, breeding start 2021/06/01 - 6 young birds fledge 2021/06/17 - All 6 leave the nest already at day 17! 2021/10/23 - Since today a great tit stays over night 2022/03/14 - Some warm days, nest-building begins! 2022/04/06 - First egg 2022/04/13 - 7 eggs, breeding begin 2022/04/28 - 7 birds hatch! 2022/05/19 - Four great tits leave the nest in the morning between 0645 and 0710 2022/10/08 - Since today a great tit stays over night 2023/03/19 - nest-building begin! 2023/04/05 - The first egg! 2023/04/13 - 7 eggs, breeding begin 2023/04/24 - What happened? Nesting material is hanging out of the flight hole and under the tree! A great tit chirps Eine Meise zwitschert indefatigably in the tree aside, the nest is churned up, but all eggs are remaining. I tried to repair the nest, but it was no use... 
 2023/04/30 - As expected the great tit did not come back, and this morning the nest was churned up again 2023/05/05 - I took out the nest, this time the eggs are partially damaged...  2023/11/01 - A great tit shows up every night again 2024/03/14 - First moss for a new nest! 2024/04/04 - Four eggs 2024/04/12 - 13 eggs 2024/04/14 - Breeding begin 2024/04/29 - Great tit stops breeding, new moss is placed, but nothing more happens 2025/02/20 - Yesterday and today a great tit stays overnight, after all winter emptiness 2025/03/02 - Moss is placed in the nest box 2025/03/27 - Tonight the great tit sleeps in the nest box again 2025/05/06 - 2 eggs 2025/05/10 - 6 eggs, breeding beginn 2025/05/21 - The first tit hatches 2025/05/23 - 5 young birds, the sixth egg remains 2025/06/01 - The 5 little birds are growing, feathers are already visible, the food supply seems to be sufficient 2025/06/10 - Three young birds fly out in the evening at 8, the mother probably stays with them 2025/06/11 - At 6 a.m. the adult bird lures the two remaining young birds out of the nest I was amazed by the red color of the nest. It turned out that an ancient "long-haired" bedspread hanging in the shed had lost some hairs.... 
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2025/11/22 - The second night at -10°C, a great tit stays overnight! |
Hereinafter the both b/w live cameras, built in at the top of the nestboxes, more than 20 years old, work good with IR light. Connected to a small AXIS videoserver for the internet. and here some addational infos. |
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| great tit nestbox | blue tit nestbox (currently with great tits) | |
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For the presentation of the picture I use a script from
Stefan Bion. By the way, during the last years he
also transmitted the inside of the nestbox to the World. The connection to the server is interrupted automatically after an hour to save traffic. Please reload the site to continue! Javascript is necessary for broadcast. If i.e. NoScript, uMatrix or another scriptblocker is installed, the scripts for boehmel.de have to be allowed. |
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Who "shows up", and when?March to april: nest-building, great tit stays over night in the nestbox.May: if you are lucky, breeding the eggs and fly out of the fledglings. June to september: the nestbox is normally empty. October to february: when it's getting noticable colder at night, a great tit spent the nights every year. When it dawns the bird "comes home", cleans its feathers and sleeps until sunrise. |
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| This timetable is a quite good orientation.
If the sky is clear the displayed sunset time matches with the homecoming of the great tit, mostly a bit later.
If it's cloudy or even bad weather, often much earlier. |
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In a short movie is show how the last young bird survived in 2010. On 2010/05/29 it looks out of the nestbox, working up the courage to fly out. Slow motion shows quite good their flaps. The movie is recorded with the nestbox-cam and a SONY HDR-HC9 HDV camcorder. |
The next movie shows the activities in the nestbox 2014. On march 13 the nest-building begins and on 2014/05/12 nine young great tits fledge! The movie is recorded with the nestbox-cam and a Panasonic HC-X929 AVCHD camcorder. |
