With Bella in egg laying mode, she has been getting the lion's share of the limelight. Today is Fay and Bill's turn. There seems to be a bit of a mystery about Box1 too as the male bird changes appearance from visit to visit. Is a rogue male trying to muscle in on the act?
This looks like Bill searching for Fay.
Is she in the box?
No!
"Where's she gone now?" he seems to be saying!
Note that this male has a clean and tidy look. In particular, the white on his face is unmarked.
Of course, directly he's gone, Fay returns. Here she is barely a minute later wriggling away like mad!
A couple of minutes later, Bill is back with some food. Is Fay there now? Of course not!
Again, note Bill's normal facial markings.
Nearly half an hour has passed and Bill is clearly getting very fed up with all this. Here you can see him calling for Fay. Head feathers erect, beak open, he looks angry or something similar.
Now he has flown down to check inside the box. Again, Fay is missing!
Ten minutes later, a bluetit is back at the box. Which bird it is I'm not too sure. It is not even clear to me what sex this bird is! However, from its behaviour, I think it unlikely that it is Fay.
Into the nest box it goes.
This time, immediately after this another bluetit arrives ...
... and after a brief hesitation of about 8 seconds, this one goes in the box too.
Is this Bill in the box with Fay joining him, or vice versa? Or is there a third party?
Immediately the second bird arrives, the first departs.
This would be normal behaviour if the first bird was Bill and the second Fay. Does the bluetit in the nest box in the picture above look like Bill?
The newcomer doesn't hang around long. Seven seconds later it leaves too. Not the sort of behaviour I would expect from Fay after she has finished her nest in the box.
An hour and a half later we again have Fay, or at least a female, in the nest box.
Shortly after, another bird with rather scruffy head feathers, arrives outside the box. Is this Bill?
I don't think Fay thinks so. She huddles down in the box - almost as though she is trying to hide. Her tail feathers are looking as though she is adopting a defensive posture too.
Perhaps the bird outside is another male trying to take over the box?
I don't know if this has anything to do with Fay's behaviour, but six seconds later the bluetit outside decides to fly away ...
At which point Fay immediately perks up - danger over perhaps?
Life returns to normal!
I couldn't finish today's post without showing you Bella's eggs. If she has laid one each day since the 11th, she should have a total of 8. Here you can see 7 of them!