He has only seen it happen with his own eyes in ten years, but this year Frank Reijn is on top of it. The great tits will fly out the day after tomorrow, according to the enthusiastic Purmerender. Yet nature is unpredictable and that is why the bird lover watches closely as the great tits do flying exercises in his bird house. “The bravest goes first!”
“The great tits have a tight pattern,” says Frank. He has made an excel sheet to estimate when the great tits will fledge. “Of course you don’t know for sure. It also depends on the weather.”
Practice, practice, practice
De Purmerender sees that mother great tit does a lot of exercises with the young. “She then makes a certain beep and you see that they respond. Then they wave to the entrance and exit.” According to Frank, the mother will beep until the last young fledges. “The bravest goes first.”
Frank really enjoys checking his livestream regularly. “I try to be the first to put on my bird’s nest in the morning.” He notices that others are following his example. “People come back every day, they say it’s a moment of rest.”
When the birds have fledged, the bird lover will first have to clean the loft. He is curious if he will meet another young that did not survive, because he is missing one. “I haven’t been able to discover it yet.”
‘House hunting’
The breeding season is coming to an end, so Frank thinks this litter is the last for the time being. Still, he hopes that there will be a litter, otherwise he will have to be patient for quite some time. For other bird lovers, who also want to place such a house, Frank has another tip: “It should already be in place before autumn. Then they go house hunting.”