Today is the day that Bella decided to stop messing about with her nest and to get on and finish it!
At the start of the day, Bella is still in her make believe world. She has decided where her nest cup is going to be but still appears to be thinking that she has done enough.
She hasn't brought much more nesting material into the box recently and spends much of her time in the box wriggling around in the nest cup.
The only trouble is that the bottom of the nest cup is a bit primitive - and that's putting it mildly. In fact the floor is still completely uncovered as can be seen here.
The bottom of the nest cup is just the bare wooden base of the nest box!
Bertie is still doing his bit. Here you can see him coming into the box with another feed for Bella.
To begin with, Bella is far too busy to bother with Bertie or with food!
Come on girl - I've got some grub for you!
Bella decides to co-operate and takes the grub.
Bertie leaves immediately ...
... and Bella gets on with the important stuff!
The nest is still distinctly short of nesting material.
Bella is trying to kid herself that the nest is now in need of lining material. Here she is with a feather.
However, you can see that at half past eleven, she still has some way to go.
She then went into overdrive and spent the next few hours bringing lots more nesting material , mainly moss, into the nest box.
This shows the picture two hours later.
Is it now ready for feathers?
Not yet. So she now brings in even more nesting material. This time it's mainly hay.
Surely now?
In comes Bella with another feather.
It is now mid afternoon and Bella again thinks she has nearly finished. She has started bringing in lots of feathers. Where she finds them from we haven't a clue!
She carried on in this fashion, basic nesting material one minute, feathers the next, and at the end of the day the nest box looked well and truly covered.
When she left it the last time at about 7.30pm, it looked in much better shape. So much so that we wondered whether she would start to roost in the box overnight.
No such luck though. That will have to await another night.