Here Beauty is getting on with her housekeeping in spite of the protests from one of her chicks. Heaven only knows what the other 5 (or 6?) that are hidden from sight down below must be feeling! Still, it doesn't seem to do them any harm and this brood certainly seems to be thriving.
This shows one of the chicks stretching a wing. You can clearly see the way its feathers are growing - the shaft of the feather being grown well before the rest of the feather (the vane). You can also see that no down has yet grown under the wing, so that stretching it reveals a pink gash of naked flesh; the chicks still need the warmth their mother provides, as well as the food.
We are still uncertain about the number of chicks in Beauty's brood. Here you can see her feeding 6 chicks - we think there are 7 in total but pictorial proof of this is hard to come by.
This image seems to show 7 gapes but we have been fooled before, so we will probably have to wait until the chicks are getting out of the nest cup before we can be certain.
Judging by this picture that will not be long now. This spiky little chick has decided that it should explore the big wide world a bit further - but it soon scuttles back to the warmth and comfort(?) of the home it knows.
It's hard being a good bluetit mother! We have been feeling for some time that Battler is not the best of Mums. She often leaves the chicks for some time, leaving the feeding to Victor, and when she finally returns, she does so empty beaked! She has even been known to eat the food brought in by Victor!!
The chicks are getting much more active. Perhaps it is because they are growing bigger - perhaps it's because they are hungry. They haven't found their voices yet, although we expect that any day now, and they are becoming far more difficult to subdue by sitting on them - the odd head keeps popping out looking for food.
As another example of Battler's problems, the chicks don't always take the food promptly - even when they appear hungry! Here, Victor gives a caterpillar to Battler ...
... who tries to feed it to her chicks.
Over half a minute later she finally gives up and leaves with it in her beak!
In just over a minute she is back again, still with the poor caterpillar (or another one!) ...
... and this time she is successful. Following this, she settled down on the protesting chicks.
Here, you can see a caterpillar in the chick's gape ...
... but it doesn't swallow it quickly enough, so she removes it.....
....and gives it to another chick, this time with apparent success. Who would be a Mum?