Help!
I have been watching the blue tits in one of my nesting boxes. The parents have been feeding between 5 - 10 mins in turns. This morning I saw that a whole lot of nesting was hanging out and blocking off the hole. It had small feathers on it but nothing else. Rightly or wrongly, I gently pushed the nesting back into the box. After a time, one of the parents came with some feed in it's beak, jumped around, looked into the box, was quite frantic and then flew off.
About 10 mins after a parent arrived, not sure if male or female as I was quite a distance away. This time, it actually went into the box and after a reasonable length of time flew out. Another 10 mins, a parent returned with 2 large grubs in it's beak. Called out, looked in the box and then flew off. I haven't seen them since.
There were no parents around, so I took a quick peek in the box. There is a small dead chick in there at the bottom of the box. Did I do the wrong thing in pushing the nesting gently back. I was very very gentle with it, and I'm fairly sure there was no eggs or other chick in the nesting. Did I just kill their only chick? I'm so upset.
I have been watching the blue tits in one of my nesting boxes. The parents have been feeding between 5 - 10 mins in turns. This morning I saw that a whole lot of nesting was hanging out and blocking off the hole. It had small feathers on it but nothing else. Rightly or wrongly, I gently pushed the nesting back into the box. After a time, one of the parents came with some feed in it's beak, jumped around, looked into the box, was quite frantic and then flew off.
About 10 mins after a parent arrived, not sure if male or female as I was quite a distance away. This time, it actually went into the box and after a reasonable length of time flew out. Another 10 mins, a parent returned with 2 large grubs in it's beak. Called out, looked in the box and then flew off. I haven't seen them since.
There were no parents around, so I took a quick peek in the box. There is a small dead chick in there at the bottom of the box. Did I do the wrong thing in pushing the nesting gently back. I was very very gentle with it, and I'm fairly sure there was no eggs or other chick in the nesting. Did I just kill their only chick? I'm so upset.