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The sad story of Enrique and Julia in 2019

The sad story of Enrique and Julia in 2019

  • Birdhouse is mounted9 March 2019

    The box is installed.

  • First scouting by Enrique!11 March 2019

    This is the very first video of Enrique in the birdhouse. Many more will follow...

  • The very first nesting material!16 March 2019

    Five days after the first visit, Enrique has started building the nest. The first nesting material is brought in.

  • Finally together!19 March 2019

    This is the first time Enrique and Julia are in the birdhouse together. If you think blue tits snuggle up cosily together in their home... think again. The moment together lasts just half a second.

  • Busy building the nest.21 March 2019

    21 March is so far the most active day for Enrique & Julia: in total they flew in and out 121 times.

  • But there are also (rare) moments of rest.22 March 2019
  • New type of nesting material: some kind of fluffy stuff31 March 2019
  • Julia spends the night in the box for the first time.8 April 2019

    Ever seen a blue tit turning in its sleep? This is what it looks like:

  • Hallelujah! The first egg!9 April 2019

    Congratulations Julia on your first egg!

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  • Number two!10 April 2019
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  • When does a blue tit get up?11 April 2019

    At 07:11, it turns out.

  • Number three!11 April 2019
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  • Number four!12 April 2019
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  • Meanwhile six.14 April 2019
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  • (At least) ten eggs.19 April 2019

    We've lost count ourselves, but we can definitely count ten eggs in Enrique and Julia's nest. The webcam connection has unfortunately been quite unstable in recent days.

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  • Twelve already!20 April 2019

    And this seems to be the final count.

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  • An attentive father.27 April 2019

    Now that Julia has started full-time incubation, Enrique occasionally pops in to check how the future mother is doing.

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  • The moment has come!3 May 2019

    On the morning of Friday 3 May the chicks hatched. Watch this tender feeding moment: father Enrique passes food to Julia, who in turn feeds the hungry beaks. Beautiful!

  • A hungry bunch.5 May 2019

    We count at least seven beaks to be fed.

  • A sad ending...13 May 2019

    We have had to conclude that all life has vanished from the box. Today we opened it and found four dead blue tits (apparently three had been evacuated from the nest by the parents earlier) and two unhatched eggs. The nest of Enrique & Julia is not an isolated case: Velt vzw and Vogelbescherming Vlaanderen have been receiving many reports of failed breeding attempts from great and blue tits since the 2018 season. Pending collection for further investigation by the SOS Mezen Project, they were given a nice spot in the freezer.

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So sad...

For two months we followed Julia & Enrique as they built their family: the first twig for the nest, the first egg, the incubation, and the very first chick. Today (13 May) this beautiful story comes to a sad end. Last weekend it was already clear that less and less life was stirring in the nest, and that the parents had stopped bringing food. Today we see no movement at all. We took the chicks from the nest, and we will make them available to the S.O.S. Mezen project. The use of pesticides against the box-tree moth is probably the cause of the nest failure, but we hope to get more certainty about that later.

About Bluet.it

Bluet.it is a hobby project by Trixie, Eppo and Maarten ( / ).