Bluetit Diary    May 2005 (15)

 

 

Thursday 19th May, 2005

Time is passing and we have just realised that in about 4 or 5 days our bluetit chicks will be gone.  They are growing rapidly and are developing proper wing feathers as well as the blue and grey down that covers them.  But before we show you their feathers, here is a dilemma for a busy dad.

Kelly is giving the nest a spring clean when Boris comes in with a mealworm.  He doesn't seem to know quite what to do.

The chicks are no help - they are clearly so well fed that another mealworm is neither here nor there!

So he waits ... and waits!

Until eventually Kelly finishes and enables one of the chicks to get up to take the mealworm.

Here is one of the chicks almost out of the nest cup.  It stretches its wings and enables us to admire its newly acquired wing feathers.  You can also see the white ring round its head - most of the adult bird's colouring is there, albeit at an early stage.

Here's another shot of a chick's growing wing feathers.

The chicks are clearly finding Kelly's nest cleaning activities a bit uncomfortable.  Here one chick has almost climbed right out of the nest cup!

Boris is feeding one of the chicks a little green caterpillar while Kelly looks on in a rather bored fashion.

It's rather strange - having shown that there were definitely seven chicks last Saturday, we haven't seen more than six at a time since!

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