One more day to go before the chicks are due to fledge. However, we should not be at all surprised if they are a bit late. They are not lively enough yet for us to expect them to fledge tomorrow.
Scrap, who is several days from fledging, is having some trouble with a mealworm.
Scrap doesn't swallow the mealworm quickly enough so Mum promptly removes it again.
She then feeds it to another chick.
He nearly has it taken away but manages to lean back enough to make that difficult and keeps it. This time it was eventually swallowed.
Both parents have the habit of appearing to tease the chicks with food. We suppose that this is to ensure that only the hungriest chicks get fed. This time Fred goes too far. He comes in with a mealworm shortly after 8 o'clock.
He starts looking for a customer.
There appear several interested but none of them satisfy him. Half a minute later he is still looking. He clucks in the normal way to arouse interest, but to no avail. Several chicks try to take it from him but he doesn't want to let go. Fantail comes in without anyone appearing to notice.
Nearly a minute has passed and still none of the chicks pass his stringent tests.
Finally,
he has had enough and leaves the nest with the mealworm still in his beak!