Our attempts to keep animals of the roof of the nest boxes appear to have failed - as far as squirrels are concerned anyway!
Today is the most likely day for Claire's eggs to start hatching, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.
See what we mean about squirrels? They are probably too light to be put of by the spikes!
Today's the day we expect Claire's eggs to start hatching. They are all intact at the moment and Claire appears to be doing her usual nest housekeeping - turning the eggs perhaps?
Shortly after, she settled down to incubate again - keep at it girl, there isn't much time to go now!
Soon she goes out - and you can see that all the eggs are still intact.
Claire is on the alert - what's happening?
Calm down Claire - it's only Sam bringing you some food!
Sam approaches Claire with the food ...
... but seems to change his mind!
But not for long! He relents and passes it across to Claire ...
... and departs.
It is now some time later and again Claire is aware of Sam outside. Her beak is open and she is looking expectantly towards the entrance hole.
Sam is taking his time about coming into the nest box.
Finally he relents and enters ...
.. and passes the food to Claire. But why does he insist on feeding her from the right hand side of the box (this is the bottom of the picture on your screen).
Claire has to go out after to recover!
She is back soon and checking the eggs again.