In the last post, I talked about the predation of a Long Tailed Tit’s nest that I’d been watching and commented that it was tough raising young.  Roll forward six weeks and I was getting into my car to go to work when I spotted the unmistakable sight of another Long Tailed Tit’s nest.  

Unfortunately, this was on the ground on my driveway and not more than three feet from the car.  It had clearly come out of the overhanging fir trees next to my drive.  Although I’d not spotted the nest in the trees a few days earlier I’d found a nestling on the ground at about the same spot.  I though that had been predated and I suspect the nest had been subject to an attack this time too.  

Here you can see the nest as I found it (though these photos were actually taken two days later). The lichen covered ball, lined with feathers has crushed as it landed.  In the first photo, you may spot a small beak through a hole bottom centre.  On investigation, there was a nestling inside the nest (I opened it after taking the first photo).  Not particularly pretty but what happens in the not so neat real world.  

So that’s two long tailed tit nests that I’ve seen destroyed this spring.  No wonder these, and other small woodland birds, have such large numbers of young and two, sometimes three broods a year.