First thing this morning, there were 4 chicks and 4 eggs in Box1. At about half past 11 we saw Beauty and Beau between them disposing of a fifth shell. The first picture shows Beauty picking up the shell.
As Beau comes in with some food, she flicks it away and it lands just below the middle of the second picture. It is the white blob you can see there.
When Beau has passed the food to Beauty, he picks up the shell and takes it outside to dispose of it.
The robins are still working hard to feed the family. Whenever one of us goes out of the back door, a robin comes down, hoping for more mealworms - and usually getting some. A family of starlings is in the garden - two adults and three young, making quite a racket. They can demolish a slice of wholemeal bread in no time at all. Elizabeth bought two loaves at a discount when she last went shopping, but at the present rate they will not last for long. Unfortunately they also enjoy the porridge oats, grated cheese and finely chopped peanuts put out for the song thrush which visits regularly. The squirrels tend to monopolise the ground feeders too. We have tried treating the food for the ground feeders with capsicum pepper dust, but the squirrels have not read the various articles that say they hate this food additive - they appear to munch away regardless.
Six chicks & two eggs? We went out for the day at 11.30 this morning, so we left the camera in webcam mode. When we returned about 6 hours later, we immediately turned on the TV and saw at least 5 chicks. It's impossible to make an exact count at the moment, as they form a wriggling pink mass. We have seen 2 eggs still, but there could be more as the nest cup is very deep. The camera is now back on "catching" mode, so we might be able to give a more accurate count later. We have now started to provide mealworms in the special feeder - the mealworms will be too big for the chicks at the moment, but hopefully (when they discover it) will provide sustenance for the parents, giving them more time to look for food for the chicks.
The male is working really hard and is bringing food in regularly - we watched him searching carefully in the hornbeam tree where the box is, but although he searched with painstaking thoroughness, he could not find sufficient there for his chicks. He flew round to the side of the house, where there are a couple of old oak trees and returned shortly after with a supply of food. When he left he searched in an adjacent silver birch, but did not seem to have much luck there either.
At the end of the bluetit day, we think that there are 6 chicks and 2 eggs left to hatch. We are very relieved, as after the first four eggs there was a gap of six days before the last four were laid. Battler in Box2 is still incubating steadfastly. Perhaps there is hope for the first 8 eggs in her nest?