Bluetit Diary    Apr 2004 (34)

 

 

Friday 23rd April, 2004

Well, we think that Fluffy has stopped laying eggs and is incubating!  Even so, she seems to behave in the most odd ways at times!

From 8.26 till 8.31am Fluffy entered and left the box 33 times!  That's an average round trip of about 9 seconds!!

You can see her here entering the nest with something greenish in her beak.

Then she doesn't seem to know what to do with it.

She hesitates for just a fraction of a second and then ....

 .... turns round and leaves the nest again with the food still in her beak.

Watching from the landing window, I saw that all she did was to fly about 3 feet onto a branch just out of view of the outside camera, and then repeat the process.

She was in the nestbox each time for about 2 or 3 seconds only.  Is this the way that incubating bluetits get their daily exercise - the equivalent of an hour at the gym?  It's a nice thought, but I don't think so.

Barney is starting to do his bit.  Here he is give Fluffy a feed, the first recorded today.

After about 10.15, Fluffy stayed on the eggs for most of the day.  She left the nest for short periods about half a dozen times, presumably to find food and take a natural break, but these periods were only about 10 minutes each.

She often leaves the eggs exposed during these breaks.  Here you can see that there are still only 7 eggs, so she has probably stopped laying.

Still no sign of an egg from Fantail.  However, Fluffy finished her nest about 11 days before she laid an egg and had been roosting for 9 days before egg laying started.

Fantail started roosting on 18th April and finished her nest on 21st April so perhaps its too early to expect her to lay an egg yet!

However, Neptune is clearly doing his bit.  Here he feeds Fantail with what looks like an oat flake from the mixture we keep the mealworms in.  Why not a mealworm, we ask ourselves?