Fun news from our garden! Baby birds were born!
This year again, a pair of Great Tits1 nested in the bird box2. Will started setting bird boxes in our garden a few years ago, and finally they got to know there are bird boxes here and started nesting last year. ( You can see our old blog on May 14, June 4 and November 30 of 2017. )
This year, they chose the one in the shade3 of tree branches. About a month ago, the first brood4 fledged5. (←according to Will. I knew the parents started nesting, but they nested in the spot way back. Then, since their activities are kind of hidden, I didn’t notice the babies were born and had flown away already.f(- -;)" ) I missed it. Shoot!6 However, a couple of weeks ago, we started hearing Great Tits again and wondered if they were going to have a second brood. Then, last week I started hearing the baby birds chirping7! I’m going to keep an eye on8 them this time!
This Sunday morning, when I went out to the garden to pick up some rapsberries for breakfast, I saw the papa bird with a bug9 in his beak. Even though I went into the garden quietly, the timing was wrong. I bothered him. I ducked10 near the rapsberry bushes and tried to hide myself.
He flew way up11 to the roof. Can you see the worm that he is carrying in his beak?
After that, since I was being still12, he flew down and went into the bird house to feed the babies and quickly flew out to get some more food.
going in
coming out
Now our garden is busy. The parents are coming and going all the time to feed the babies. When the papa bird or the mama bird comes back and sticks13 its head in the hole of the bird box, the baby birds chirp suddenly and very loudly.
We always hear the parents go jee jee jee, when we are in the house. We are having a fun life with our Great Tits! Since we missed them last year after they flew away (it happens really suddenly), we will really cherish14 this period!
** Just for Fun **
I won’t dare to write what it is, but the word "tit" has an another meaning, too. Well, recently, since there is another Great Tit in Europe, they started calling Shijyukara the Japanese Tit. In both ways, I feel kind of funny….
Will also explained that while the big birds like Swans and Ducks have a single brood every year, the little birds like our JapaneseTits can have 2, 3 or even more broods in a single season.
