disappeared into one box, the “used” one. We’ll call it “Box 1”. After a while it became apparent that pairs 2 and 3 were unwelcome in box 1. I put it no more strongly than that since apart from raised voices in the box no harm was done. Pair 1 effectively disappeared at this point and I assumed they were on eggs. Pairs 2 and 3 showed only a passing interest in boxes 2 – 5, sometimes roosting in a box, sometimes on a perch.
On 25 December I heard a chick calling in box 1. I disturbed the adults briefly (they left the box as soon as I touched the door and returned immediately I closed it). Inside were one newly- hatched chick and eight eggs. They went on to hatch a further seven chicks. One chick died at a few days old, the remaining seven were reared to maturity.
As the chicks progressed I became aware that pairs 2 and 3 were again entering box 1 but the muted sounds indicated that they were again welcome and appeared to be feeding the chicks. This continued while the chicks were in the box. I also realized (I am often in the birdhouse when the “daylight” phase lighting comes on) that all 6 adults were again roosting in box 1 – in addition, of course, to 7 chicks. Surprisingly, all went well and the chicks avoided suffocation.
The first chick left the nest on 2nd
February, 40 days from first hatch. All 13 birds co-existed amicably until I removed the chick’s approx six weeks after they left the box.
30 BIRD SCENE
A few weeks later pair 1 went down again. This time I separated Pairs 2 & 3 in two thirds of the flight cage (6’ x 2’ x 2’) with a choice of 3 nest boxes – the objective being to see if one pair would be “dominant” and stimulated to breed. As in previous years, Pair 1 produced nothing from the second round. Pair 2 made a false start in box 3 – laid, produced nothing and subsequently relocated to box 4 where they did not lay. Pair 3 went down after pair 2 (I’m not sure exactly when) in box 2. I knew nothing of their progress until, on 27 August, I heard a chick calling. They were less receptive to initial disturbance than pair 1 and by the time I could check the box it contained three chicks approximately ten days old. Two of these were subsequently reared to maturity. The loss of the third chick was unusual – losses generally occur within two weeks of hatch but this one was at least three weeks old. There was no evidence that pair 2 took any interest in raising the chicks of pair 3 but all 4 adults were entirely amicable in their now 6’ (1800mm) long flight cage. As soon as the chicks were out of the
box I removed all the boxes from pairs 2/3 – eggs immediately appeared on the cage floor, I presume from pair 2. Meanwhile, pair 1 (still separate) had gone down for a third time and hatched and reared a single chick. At the time of writing I am about to remove all three chicks and put the three pairs of adults back together and “rest” them for a while until I think they’re all back in condition to receive their nest
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