Bluetit Diary    May 2005 (19)

 

 

Tuesday 24th May, 2005

For most of the day, we have been glued to the television watching Kelly's chicks and wondering whether they would fledge today.  At one stage early on, one of the chicks flew up to the hole and looked out.  This made us think that today would be the day, but it only did this once more and now, at a quarter to six, we think that they will leave their departure until tomorrow.

Babe's chicks are beginning to look more like adult great tits every day.  They are now developing the white bits on their faces and in spite of what I said earlier, are perhaps going to look quite attractive by the time they fledge!

Kelly still has six chicks this morning! ... 

... and Babe still has her four remaining great tit chicks - that's a relief then!

Here the boss chick looks out of the nest.  I wonder how he makes sense of what he is seeing for the first time?

All the other chicks think he is being foolhardy and huddle together in the nest cup for security!

(You may think I am imagining this, but it is a common reaction that we have seen before!)

The bluetit chicks are starting to wander around inside the nest box a lot more.  This is another sign we look for before the chicks fledge.

Here Boris has come in with a large white lump of - whatever can it be?  A piece of sunflower heart?

He tries to give it first to one chick and then to another, but he is never satisfied and keeps taking it away again.

The chicks are eager to try it - it is Boris who is not letting them have it!

Several times in this sequence, he turned to go and on one occasion actually left the nest with it only to reappear a few seconds later.

I think he finally decided that it is too big for them and cuts it into two pieces.  You can see him here with some of it left in his beak and the rest is on the floor of the nest against the back wall.

Eventually an enterprising chick decided that enough is enough and grabs it from his beak!  He then picks up the other piece and feeds that to another chick!

Here we see the start of a rather unusual competition - Kelly and Boris argue about who should remove a chick's poo!

"I'll take it" says Kelly.

"No - it's mine" says Boris!

Finally, they both seem to end up with a piece of the action!

Well, will the chicks fly tomorrow then?  I think it's better than evens chance that they will!

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