Bluetit Diary    May 2002 (15)

One of Beauty's chicks is becoming stronger and more aggressive than the rest and is therefore getting much more that his fair share of food.  Here he is in typical position standing guard ready to pounce on the luckless parent who comes in with some grub.  While we watched earlier this afternoon, he got about three out of four mealworms that were brought into the nest during a period of a few minutes.  Hopefully, he will get full eventually and then some of the other chicks will get the chance to eat!

This chick in the corner has clearly had enough.  It got out of the nest and stayed in the corner doing nothing for about 3½ minutes.  When you bear in mind that there are 7 or 8 chicks in all and normally you can only see about 4, you begin to realise why getting away for a breather might not be a bad thing.

It's still there when another chick does some exercise, an increasingly frequent event these days.

And here you can see why.  Boss is standing on the head of the chick below!  He stays there some while, spending the time preening and waiting to pounce on his next meal.

And on the right, you can see that this strategy is successful - in swoops Beau and Boss gets the grub.

Life is getting pretty demanding for Battler too at the moment, though no one chick stands out yet as the boss.

You can perhaps see the difference in the male and female hair style.  Males are more scruffy with a bigger white piece separating their blue top patch from their black collar.  The females are smoother and better turned out - quite like humans really!

Battler keeps on wanting to call it a day. She is not a dutiful parent, but the chicks will not let her and Victor is still at it bringing in more food at regular intervals and getting the kids exited again.  Eventually, she gets fed up and leaves the nest - whether it is to help Victor with the food or for some other reason is not clear.

How do you brood this unruly bunch?  Battler keeps on thinking that things are calming down and that everything is under control ...

...  when Victor comes in again and it's bedlam with chicks lunging everywhere!

Battler's had enough - she leaves ... 

 ... and lets Victor sort out the mess!

Battler tries again, this time she had actually tucked her head under her wing....

 ....but again she is disturbed.  This time Victor has the chicks so well trained that he didn't even have to come fully into the nest - he can feed them while sitting in the entrance hole.

It won't be long before Battler too says enough is enough, and leaves the chicks by themselves during the night.  Beauty started leaving the chicks several nights ago, we think this is their third night by themselves.  Here you can see three chicks - the other four or five must be in the basement!