Bluetit Diary    Apr 2004 (41)

 

 

Thursday 29th April, 2004

Barney is certainly looking after Fluffy well now.  There is a sequence below in which he seems to be demanding to see whether Fluffy has any chicks hatched yet!  After feeding her, he keeps pushing forward as though trying to make her move from the nest cup!

It all starts pretty conventionally.  The time is 09:54:52 when Barney gives Fluffy his titbit.  

Seven seconds later he is still there.  You can see that he has actually moved forward somewhat making Fluffy rear back to avoid him.

Another six seconds have passed and he has moved forward again imposing his presence upon her.  We saw this behaviour last year when the male clearly wanted to give the food he was carrying to the recently hatched chick himself, rather than pass it to the female for her to feed the chick with.

This is the last picture in this sequence.  It is now 15 seconds since the first image and Barney is still pressing.  However, he then suddenly gives up and leaves the nest.