Welcome to the 2025 beaks!
Last updated: 12th June 2025
The kids have flown the nest!
At around 6am this morning, in the space of about 5 minutes, all 7 of the chicks left the nest box. Good luck chicks! Hope to see one of you next year. Well done to Mr. and Mrs. B for getting a 100% fledge rate from the eggs that hatched. Amazing stuff.
Having crunched the numbers on the Beak Ingress Detector (BID) on the doorway, I can reveal that in the 43 days from when it started to when the chicks fledged, the parents went in and out about 4,600 times. That's a lot of caterpillars!
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If you need to have a fix of beak nesting, then there is a 10 hour video of the last day of life in the nest.
The visiting beaks
Curated highlights of the beak visits this year. The latest videos are at the top.
One by one the chicks leave the nest. Good luck little beaks!
The last 5 minutes before the chicks start leaving. You can see the excitement in the air and the urge to fly away that all the chicks have.
A couple of the chicks have a look out of the door. One of those chicks is HUGE!
Just 5 minutes of a day in the nest for the chicks.
They are exercising their wings now, having a good old flap and building those muscles up.
Another attack! Mrs. B. fights back with a pecks and screeching against the unseen bird you can hear flapping and scrabbling. It's like a horror movie. After a while Mr. B. comes in with some food and they get back to normal. At the end, a chick emerges from a quivering pile of moss at the bottom right of the screen.
There seems to be some movement between the nest hole and the corner of the box. There's 2 chicks in the hole here, but I've also seen 3 in there,
A splinter faction of chicks makes a break for the corner of the box, leaving just one in the nest.
One of the chicks hops out of the nest for a moment and you can see their weird legs.
Two of the chicks recreate that spaghetti eating moment out of Lady and the Tramp, except with a caterpillar.
A couple of feeds for the chicks, including a huge caterpillar. They are so feathery now!
Just 5 minutes of a day in the nest for the chicks.
The chicks having a bit of a feed and a kip. You can see dark lines on their backs and wings - this is where the feathers will start coming out.
Did the last of the eggs hatch at 3.35am? Here we can see Mrs. B. eating an eggshell in the middle of the night.
With all that food going in, there's obviously poo coming out. At just 1 day old, their digestive systems aren't working 100% and there are nutrients left in the poo. Seems a shame to waste them... You can't be squeamish if you are a blue tit.
You don't often see the little pink wrigglers because Mrs. B. is usually sitting on them, keeping them warm. At one day old, and with no feathers, they are... not as pleasing to the human eye as a fluffy chick. Big bushy eyebrows though.
It's great to see so many yummy green caterpillars for the chicks. Get them down you, kids!
Mr. B. comes in with some caterpillar for the chicks, and Mrs. B. starts eating the eggshells. No point in wasting those minerals!
It's dark and gloomy out there, so it's a bit difficult to see, but there is a pink wriggler (possibly two) and another one coming out of its egg.
The first of the eggs to crack (I think), at 5.42am.
The Beaks' day is upset by something lurking around outside the box, presumably after the eggs - maybe a magpie or crow. Yikes. Luckily the small hole means they are safe.
Mr. B. is really ramping it up now. Here he comes in 3 times in 30 seconds with food for Mrs. B. He must know that the pink wrigglers are due any time now.
Lots of noise in this one. Who is actually doing the cheeping? Mr. B, who is bringing the food, or Mrs. B, who is eating it.
Mr. B. has some more grub (actually a caterpiller) for Mrs. B. and waits patiently for her to return. When she leaves he as a good look at the eggs.
Definitely 8 eggs there. Mrs. B. comes in, closely followed by Mr. B, who gives her a delicious caterpillar. She then does a lovely fluffy wriggle on the eggs.
Looks like 8 eggs to us. See if you can count them near the beginning and end of this video.
At 6.06am on the 15th of April 2025, Mrs. B. laid her first egg. YAY!!!! Go Mrs. B! Let's have lots more. I love this beautiful beak!
Mrs. B. continues to build the nest and Mr. B. continues to bring in food. Good beaks.
Mrs. B. is sorting out the nest when Mr. B. comes in with a nice insect for her. This time she scoffs it down rather than shouting at him.
Not really sure what is going on here. She brings in some moss, he brings in a spider and she yells at him, then she takes the moss out again. Any ideas?
The first bit of nesting material. She brings in a nice sprig of moss, chucks it in a corner and forgets about it. It's a start, I guess.
Mr. Beak brings in some grub for the chicks - or a spider to be precise. There's no chicks yet, so he eats it himself. Good practice though.
Look that that flapping! This is what she will be doing when she brings in nest material. She's cleaned the box out and is practicing her nest making technique. It can't be long now until she starts nesting.
Mrs. B wakes up briefly, has a little look around and goes back to sleep with her head under her wing.
The new camera captures a beak for the first time. It looks a little less anaemic with a non-IR camera.
Just a short clip, but you can hear them cheeping to each other. So cute!
Now with sound! The beaks come in for another look around
The first beaks in the box! The picture quality is terrible, but we have beaks! A pair of Blue Tits hop in for a nosey.