The Fledgling’s First Flight

For the past few weeks, I’ve been watching a pair of blue tits flitting in and out of a nest box in the farthest corner of my back garden. In the past few days, the arrivals and departures have been as busy as Heathrow airport. I knew that the box must be full of nestlings who continuously twitter for more food. Their parents have worked tirelessly.

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First Flight

Today, I became very excited when I saw the nestlings become fledglings. I only encountered two of them, but there must have been more. Maisie, mischievous our dachshund-cross-cocker-spaniel chased one of them across the garden until it managed to take off into the rambling rose where I snapped this photograph.

It’s amazing that the can emerge and start flying almost immediately, just as a calf or a foal is up and staggering within an hour of birth. Nature is truly wonderful!

I’ll wait until there is absolutely no activity before I clean the box out. It is very rare for tits to produce more than one clutch in any given year, but it happens from time to time. I am told that they won’t return to a used site though; hence the need to clean up. If they don’t come back, at least their home will be ready and waiting for them in Spring 2018.