News

Bye beaks!Last updated: Monday 25nd May

The chicks have fledged! I was going to make a video with the last chicks leaving the nest, but I didn't stop the program which deletes older videos, and it deleted them all before I could do it. Sorry about that. The good news is that all 5 have fledged. Good luck little beaks!

This year was somewhat challenging, with various problems, not least falling off my bicycle and injuring myself at a critical time. I have lots of improvements planned for 2027, so see you then!

If you want to keep up to date with Beaks 2027, please subscribe to the mailing list. There are usually 2-3 emails a year, and NO SPAM!

Highlights

The best action from 2026Last updated: Friday 22st May

22nd May 2026

The beaks clear out 3 of the 4 dead chicks from the nest. This video is included for a full record of life in the box. It's interesting to see how they get them out, but it is REALLY gross and you probably don't want to watch it. Blue tits are not squeamish.

19th May 2026

Get it down ya! This chick is probably feeling butterflies in its stomach, thanks to its mum repeatedly jamming one down its throat.

17th May 2026

They are starting to make little peeping noises. So cute. Note that the video has been cropped to remove the less-cute sight of a pile of corpses.

14th May 2026

Absolute scenes from the nest, as the chicks start wandering about the box. The ensuing chaos is a good chance to get a view of all 9 chicks at once.

11th May 2026

One week on from hatching, the chicks are rapidly increasing in size and are sprouting feathers. They are also starting to open their eyes. See if you can spot which ones are starting to exercise their peepers.

10th May 2026

Woo! 9 Beaks! I've been counting them since they started hatching, and only ever counted a maximum of 8 until today. There's actually 9 in there!

5th May 2026

The beaks are very much enthusiasts of the "waste not want not" principle. Young chicks' digestive systems don't get up to full speed for a few days, and during that time, their poo contains a lot of undigested nutrients. It's daft to let them go to waste, so here we see Mrs. B. scoffing it down. I mean, it makes sense, but yuck nonetheless.

4th May 2026

Mr. and Mrs. B. are both feeding the chicks now. If the food is too big to swallow, they take it out again and try another mouth or chew it a bit more.

4th May 2026

It must be tiring breaking out of your shell, so it's not surprising that the wrigglers just want to sleep, despite Mrs. B. shouting at them. She gets some food down them later.

4th May 2026

When you have blasted out your body weight in eggs (blue tit: 11g, egg: 1.1g), you need to get some of those nutrients back, and the egg shell is great for calcium. Get those shells down you, Mrs. B.

4th May 2026

WRIGGLERS! We have pink wrigglers - two of them as of writing. Probably more now - they all come out at about the same time, which is impressive given that they are laid over the course of more than a week. Here's hoping for lots more to come.

3th May 2026

Hey! I've got grub! Why is no-one taking my lovely green grub? Mr. B. is disconcerted by the lack of enthusiasm from the unhatched eggs.

23st April 2026

Hopefully signs of things to come - Mr. B. brings in a huge green caterpillar for Mrs. B. These are what the chicks will need to grow up big and strong.

21th April 2026

9 EGGS! Apparently blue tits can lay up to 12 eggs, but Mrs. B's 9th egg sets a new record for this box. Go Mrs. B!

17th April 2026

Is this Mrs. B laying an egg? I can't see anything popping out, but she hops up on to the side of the nest cup, and just stands there with her bum over the nest. Is she waiting for an egg to come out? The next time we see in the nest there are 5 eggs.

13th April 2026

EGG! Some time between 6.18am and 6.43am (or possibly 6.23am) she laid her first egg. Well done Mrs. B! In the last bit, Mr. B. comes in, looks a bit lost, spots the egg and does a hilarious double take, before flying off at top speed.

10th April 2026

Mrs. B. spent the night in the nest for the first time, fluffed up and with her head tucked under her wing. It won't be long until we see some eggs!

10th April 2026

Puttin the finishing touches to the nest. She is now bringing in fluffier material for the nest cup, and has changed the flapping to form a nice shaped place to lay her eggs.

31th March 2026

The nest building starts in earnest. Mrs. B spends all morning bringing in lovely springy moss for the underlay of the nest.

20th March 2026

Mr. B. is bringing in food, which Mrs. B. happily takes while she is cleaning out the box. She has started digging the schmutz out of the drainage holes now.

17th March 2026

The box has quite a lot of poo from last year's nest on the floor. Mrs. B. is clearing it out, but she also seems to be just chucking a lot of it around. A technique I have yet to try myself, when cleaning the house.

9th March 2026

Mrs. B brings in some nesting material and chucks it on the floor before doing that flapping thing.

23th February 2026

Mrs. B practices the flapping she'll be doing when making the nest. The technique involves bringing in some stuff and then flapping to spread it around.

18th February 2026

Mr. B. does a typical bloke's attempt at cleaning - picking up a couple of bits of dirt before getting bored and leaving.

16th February 2026

Mrs. B. comes and has a look at the mess on the floor, before hopping up to the door and giving it a damn good pecking. This is quite common with blue tits, and no-one really knows why they do it.

17th January 2026

Starling attack! Listen to the starling (maybe) scrabbling around on the box. Look to the left of the screen and you can see a long pointy beak coming in. The blue tits avoided the nest for a week after this - maybe it put them off?

6th January 2026

The first recorded visits of the year. Just a quick hop in and out to get a feel for the place. They will keep coming in with increasing regularity until the nest building starts, and it's all systems go!