Bluetit Diary    May 2006 (9)

 

 

Thursday 11th May (part2)

It's now 2 o'clock and at last we seem to have another egg hatching - at least this looks like a piece of eggshell!

Kate is begging for food from Ben.  She does this by crouching down and fluttering her wings.  We don't remember this behaviour by our females before (after the eggs have hatched).

And here it is again.  Kate is on the left and Ben on the right of the picture.  You can see a small food item in Ben's beak.

Ben thinks about ignoring Kate and tries to feed the chicks himself.

He clearly doesn't have any success with this and so finally he presents the food to Kate.

So Kate moves across to feed the chicks and Ben leaves the nest box to get some more.

It's now a quarter past three.  You can clearly see that there are still several unhatched eggs.  Exactly how many is not so clear ...

... although from this picture there are clearly at least 5!

Nearly two hours later at a quarter past five, I think there are still 5 unhatched eggs!

Here are four eggs still whole at about six o'clock.

Another hour and a quarter has passed and I am not sure whether any more eggs have hatched.  However, the nest cup is a writhing mass of pink chicks!

There are still at least four eggs though!

Finally, at half past seven, just before the lights go out and recording stops, Kate looks as though she is settling down for the night.