Today we're off for a birding weekend at the RSPB site at Minsmere in Suffolk with a group from Bird Forum. This will therefore be brief!
Fantail and Neptune are still doing very little, but Fluffy and Barney seem to have got the bit between their teeth (if birds can be said to have teeth!) Today Fluffy brought in some feathers for the first time.
This is the state of Box2 first thing this morning.
There are no feathers here.
Fluffy brought in the first feathers at about a quarter past ten. At this stage they just looked like white bits of fluff. I wonder where she got them from?
There's no doubt now. This is definitely a white feather. Has the sparrowhawk unconsciously been providing some bedding for our bluetits?
As usual with Fluffy, nothing is straight forward. Just as she was about to go, she picked the feather up again and left with it!
As an aside to this thread, since we became so popular with a large flock of siskins, a male sparrowhawk has taken to coming to see us more frequently. Here he finds the feeder pole makes a good place to perch between forays.
We hope that as the siskins have now moved on, so will the sparrowhawk! I think it's lovely to see him (Elizabeth doesn't feel the same way) - but please, not until a few weeks after the bluetits have fledged!
Last year he took a song thrush which nearly broke our hearts. It had been a regular visitor to our garden which had previously been thrush-less for some time. Since then he has only managed to catch a collared dove which flew into the windows in a panic and stunned itself when the sparrowhawk came.
Thirty seconds later Fluffy was back - still with a feather which looks remarkably like the last one.
Who said that personality is the prerogative of man? Whoever it was clearly hadn't worked with animals!
A last look before we go shows us Barney paying a visit.
Finally - the state of the nest as we left.
What will it look like when we return on Monday?