Bluetit Diary    May 2006 (11)

 

 

Saturday 13th May (part2)

So how many chicks do Kate and Ben have now?

Clearly at least six!

If that was all, we would be disappointed as she seemed to lay 10 eggs.

This is a bit better - at least seven hungry chicks are gaping here!

Now this is more like it.  I think I can count 9 here.  This is the largest number in all the pictures I have looked at today.

Nine again here.  There is one nearly hidden under the feather that hangs over the nest cup on the left hand side of the picture.

Feeding time again.  It seems to be always feeding time!

It's nearly 3 minutes later and Kate is still trying to get a volunteer to take this rather big caterpillar.

Just by chance, you can see what looks suspiciously like a tenth egg!

That's definitely a tenth egg!

That tenth egg must have hatched!  That's definitely a piece of eggshell that Kate is eating.

Half a minute later and Kate has the other half of the eggshell in her beak.

Who would have thought another egg would hatch about 24 hours after the last one?

This time Kate removes it from the nest rather than eating it.

I'm glad that happened (just) before lights out as we might have missed it.  This means that all of Kate's 10 eggs have hatched out - let's hope they all fledge in nearly three weeks time!