No, there are no more eggs today. The pattern of behaviour of both females is subtly changing. They are spending long periods each day in the nest where they are fed by their respective partners. But to start with, a comic touch - Fantail has sprouted more whiskers!
Fantail was in her nest from 09.57 until 10.56. Fluffy was similarly occupied from 11.19 till 12.48. She then had a brief break (comfort break?) but was back from 12.54 till 13.47 and again from 13.53 till 14.13.
What makes the hen birds decide to start incubation? Why don't all the chicks hatch out on different days? Last year, a remarkable sequence of events took place in Box2. This box appeared to be the subject of a takeover battle half way through egg laying. As a result, 8 eggs were laid in the 10 days till April 17th and then there was a gap of 17 days before three more eggs were laid on May 5th, 6th and 7th when incubation started. However, 6 eggs hatched over two days and all these chicks fledged 19 days later.
Since 6 eggs hatched, at least half of them must have been laid during the first phase. They therefore experienced being almost totally neglected during most of the 17 day gap. Nevertheless, all the chicks hatched together! The lesson to be learned here is do not panic if your eggs appear to have been deserted - another bird may take it over and hatch the eggs!
Getting back to this year's events, we can see that Fantail still has four eggs and Fluffy five - no change from yesterday in either box.
Fantail's four . . .
. . . and Fluffy's five.
Having spent most of the morning in their respective boxes, both our birds took the afternoon off, the nests being empty apart for the occasional brief visit, from 14.27 until 18.47. Both were again in bed early - preparing for the trials to come perhaps!
If you want to read about what happened last year in more detail, follow the link to Thursday 18th April 2002