Bluetit Diary    Apr 2006 (11)

 

 

Monday 24th April, 2006

It looks as though Claire has started incubating her eggs.  Clearly our great tits do not read the books which say that they normally lay clutches of 8-13 eggs!.  Kate has continued to be enigmatic, making sure her eggs are hidden from us most of the time.

Here Claire is coming back to her nest in which you can clearly see that there are 5 eggs.  How many more will she lay?

Judging from her behaviour yesterday, she thinks that she should start incubation already!

Except when their behaviour make it clear, we are still having great difficulty distinguishing Sam from Claire.  Here Claire shows that she has an extremely narrow tail.  Is this going to be a way of separating them?

It is interesting to see that there are still bluetits looking for a nest box.  I wonder if this is one of the pair that were in and out of the box earlier in the season?  And does this interest mean that they have found no other place to make their nest?

This is the start of an interesting sequence.  It starts with Claire sitting on her eggs, as she does most of the time now, waiting for the eggs to hatch.

Sam approaches the nest box with something in his beak.

Claire responds by raising herself from the nest cup and approaching the nest box hole.

Sam jumps down onto the nest box entrance hole, but stays on the outside!

Claire leans forward and Sam passes the food to her.  It appears to be a fat and juicy green caterpillar.

She returns to her eggs, eating the caterpillar on the way.

A quarter of an hour later, after she has gone out to stretch her wings, Claire returns with some food in her beak.

Is she looking for a chick to feed?  If so, she is a trifle early.  There are 10 to 12 days to go yet!

 

She seems rather puzzled and appears not to know what do to with the food!

Finally, she decides to eat it herself.

A few more images to finish today's postings.

This is Claire "busy" incubating!  She has spent most of today sitting on the eggs and I will be surprised if she lays any more. 

The great tit that occupied this nest box last year also laid only 5 eggs.  I wonder if it is the same bird?

A shot of the eggs!  The reddish-brown speckles are quite clear on these eggs.  Let's hope they all hatch out successfully!

Towards the end of the day - another nest box hole feeding session.  It's good to see Sam taking his responsibilities seriously!

On that note, I'll finish today's entry.  I hope Kate will give us some better pictures tomorrow of what she is up to than she has so far!