IT’S a truly beautiful sight – a clutch of nine blue tit eggs in a warm nest.
They are in the nest box of reader and bird expert Geordie Hynes – he’s got a camera in the box so he can watch them all day long. Dúlra also has a pair of blue tits, meantán gorm in Irish, nesting in his own nest box at the side of the house – they too will be incubating their eggs, although he doesn’t have that sophisticated camera to check them out.
All individual species of birds work off the same biological clock, a primordial calendar that tells them the optimum day to start laying those eggs. That clock will work back from the best time to feed chicks – in Geordie’s case those nine hungry mouths. And that will be in exactly 13 days’ time when our trees will be covered with grubs and caterpillars that blue tit chicks need. Blue tits only lay one clutch of eggs a year, so the synchronisation with the emergence of caterpillars must be exact.
Geordie will enjoy watching the mother incubating those eggs. It’s a time for her to rest and gather her strength. She won’t even have to leave the box – her partner will take food to her, mostly in the morning. Mother blue tits obviously like their breakfast in bed!
Many people – including some years Dúlra – don’t realise that their nest boxes have any residents at all, because she won't budge all day long.
But in a fortnight’s time the madness will begin. It’s not unusual that a parent will bring food to those chicks every 90 seconds.
The brood in Geordie’s box is large – seven or eight would be more common – but Dúlra would guess the parents were the most spoiled in the country through the winter. Well-fed parents are more likely to lay more eggs – it's an incredible feat to lay nine when you consider the size of the tiny mother. Every day for nine days she produced an egg – in total they'll be one-and-a-half times heavier than her!
Dúlra has found many a blue tit nest on our hills, where they build in holes in tree stumps or walls. They may be tiny, but the mother will fiercely protect her brood. Just poke a finger inside and she’ll hiss like a snake! Dúlra’s hand has shot out quicker than Audrey Hepburn’s from the Mouth of Truth in Roman Holiday! (Google it, younguns!)
Garden boxes are a godsend for many species of birds. Three of Dúlra’s are occupied this year. As well as the blue tits, he has great tits and starlings. And he’s praying for more – so far no house martins have been attracted by the calls that he’s been blasting into the sky since they arrived back in Ireland last week.
But the bird he really wants – not for himself but to give a secure home to this endangered species – is the swift. It’s estimated that most gabhlán gaoithe arrive in these parts on May 4 – Monday week – and in preparation, Dúlra has upgraded the caller with a new more powerful mini-speaker (sorry, neighbours).
The screeching swift’s call is more banshee than Beethoven but the racket is worth it for a bird that could be the most remarkable of them all as it lives its whole life in the air, only touching down to breed. Could Dúlra get four species in the nest boxes this year?
He certainly hopes so.
Dúlra snapped this fox through a hedge on Tuesday on the Ballyhill Road near Dundrod.
He was driving when he spotted it in a field, and was able to pull up alongside it and take this picture through the window of the car. Which is why it ain’t great. The fox seemed as comfortable in the field as any of the nearby sheep.
And reader Paul Hamilton also has a fox visiting his garden in Glenbawn in Poleglass – as well as a badger! “It’s like a zoo out there,” he smiled.
• If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.
