Kate is the most fidgety bluetit we have known. She never seems to stay still for more than a second. How she will cope with incubating heaven only knows!
Of course being fidgety often means you are industrious - always on the go! That is certainly true of Kate. Although her nest box is pretty full, she is still bringing in feathers and other stuff. This time it's a small white feather.
She seems to have found a good partner in Ben. He comes to feed her quite frequently, bearing in mind the relatively short time she is often in the nest.
Here she is with some more feathers - this time they are white and fluffy.
And here are some more. Where is she getting them from? Elizabeth put out some feathers from an old cushion over a week ago but I don't think she has put out any more more recently and it has rained since then!
When she comes into the nest box with some feathers, she is constantly on the move. Most of the pictures the system takes are therefore blurred like this one.
I don't think she can stop! The nest box is getting fuller and fuller with downy feathers, both black and white. She has more than enough for her chicks but for some reason she obviously feels compelled to collect more.
Here she is with some more feathers.
I wonder what she would do if she couldn't get in because the nest was full of feathers?
Ben tries to distract her by bringing her some food. It looks like quite a large fly or moth or something.
Ben feeds the insect to Kate.
But Kate is not to be distracted for long. She is drowning in feathers!
When she brings in feathers she seems to have a fixed procedure for distributing them which involves twirling round in the box and releasing them. Here she is in mid twirl!
Ben again interrupts her with some food.
It's now mid afternoon and she is still bringing in large quantities of stuff.