For the second morning, she has gone out at about 9 o'clock, for a bath. She arrives back at the nest looking very bedraggled, not a bit like her normal desirable self. The pictures on the left don't really do justice to the way her feathers stick out all over the place.
Great excitement today. David Jones has his first chick, earlier than expected. Our bird is 2 days behind his in incubation, and we had calculated that our first chick might appear on Wednesday 16th. We are wondering if ours will be early too.
This morning she brought in a couple more feathers, and fussed around, tucking then into the nest cup - is she trying to make it more comfortable and cosy for herself, or for the long awaited hatchlings?
Our bird seems to be getting very itchy - she has bouts of violent preening, so we wonder if other smaller creatures are sharing her nest. In the afternoon Elizabeth put more mealworms into the feeder, and tapped on the garden chair underneath it - we are trying to train our bird to recognise the arrival of more food. Shortly after, our bird left her nest, and paused in the entrance hole for a short while, before flying up into the tree. She was not seen to take any mealworms before she returned to the nest, and snuggled herself down again.