Bluetit Diary    May 2006 (7)

 

 

Monday 8th May (part2)

An hour and a half has passed and at 10:40am Claire is again returning to the box.

She seems to be spending quite a lot of time looking at her chicks.

Suddenly, she lifts something into the air - it is the dead chick!

She moves towards the exit hole still holding the chick ...

... and leaves with it still in her beak.

Here you can see Claire leaving the nest box with the dead chick still hanging from her beak.

In less than a minute she is back in the nest to rejoin the remaining three chicks.

The rest of the day is uneventful.  The birds dry out and as far as the chicks are concerned, the food continues to arrive at regular intervals.

Here is Sam bringing some food just before shut down time.

Sam passes it to Claire, ...

... who feeds it to the chicks.

For the remaining chicks, life carries on as normal.