Nest hanging out of box. Should I have left it? (1 Viewer)

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.

This is either a great spotted woodpecker or cat attack. They will have pulled out the nest material to reach the chicks, and then eaten them. There's nothing you could have done really, as once they know where they are they will come back until all the food (chicks) has gone.

I don't honestly think any of this was down to you it is most likely to have been visited by a predator. For example rat,stoat,weasle, Magpie, Jay and Great spotted woodpecker will all take eggs or young birds from a box.

Nesting out of box, should I remove dead chick

Thanks for your replies chaps. Should I remove the dead Chick and anything else that's in the box. The parents haven't returned since yesterday, when I saw them last. I thought I saw two spotted woodpeckers in my garden, because of a red cap, but there were no spots on it's back/wings, but it had a white collar and I'm not sure if it had a black/white head. It's back and tail were black (I think). It definitely had yellow bars on it's wings, and the tail looked liked it had a faint white or light grey stripe (With wings closed). Was it Goldfinch. I cannot find it in my book and they didn't stay long enough for me to take a pic. Any idea whhat it was. (This description is from memory, which isn't that brilliant!)

You can remove all the nest and the chick - they or another pair may attempt a late replacement brood but it's a very long shot, you probably wont get any more interest in the box til next breeding season.

Very upsetting news