Another sequence.
Here, the bird in situ has clearly heard something going on outside.
Here comes she who must be obeyed!
The new entrant is now by herself in the nest box, the male having left so quickly that the changeover was not recorded. (This image was taken about half a second after the last one!)
Here you can see her white band quite clearly - and here it looks much thinner than the male's.
But what's this? The image was captured about 15 seconds later during which time the same bird has stayed in the nest! (i-Catcher's image stream clearly shows continuous occupancy of the nest box.)
So, beware of using the white band as a reliable indicator of which bird is which!
Incidentally, and this is nothing to do with our bluetits, this year Elizabeth has bought a new feeding pole and some Niger seed feeders with a view to attracting goldfinches. I was very sceptical but she has been proved resoundingly right! Until recently we have been inundated with them - up to 18 at a time! However, that now pales into insignificance since the siskins have arrived. They love Niger seeds and have been landing in droves. Today we had over 70 - yes seventy siskins - feeding at a time. It is impossible to count them in real time as they are always on the move but I took a picture of the birds on the ground and have counted that there are about 56 there. At such busy times we get another 16 on the feeder itself making over 70 in all - oh, and three or four goldfinches. The poor things seem to find the crush too much to cope with and have moved elsewhere.
If you want to see the 2 pictures of the siskins, each about 60kB click here.