Today I thought I would try to settle the question of how many chicks Kelly has. We are off to Minsmere shortly so we don't have much time.
Well, this shot has 5 open gapes, a well defined closed beak at the top left hand side and something yellow under Kelly's beak!
Seven chicks still looks a possibility!
This looks even better. Five open gapes, one almost closed beak to the left and a possible seventh closed beak nearest to Kelly.
Even better - six gapes and a probable closed beak at the left hand end of the second row.
Watching Kelly feed the chicks is quite amusing. You can see that she is looking for a really hungry chick to give her food to. She will dip the caterpillar or whatever in several gapes but unless the chick closes its beak quickly and gets on with swallowing the food, she will take it out again to give to another chick.
It must be seven chicks!
Yes - there are seven chicks in Kelly's brood. Either the last egg did not hatch or else the chick died very early on while the chick's body was small enough to be removed from the nest.
Now for Minsmere!