Box1 has a visitor.
All of our boxes have had visitors today. However, it is only Bella and Bertie that are regularly going inside.
And another! Actually it looks very much like the same bird.
Even Box3 has not been entirely forgotten.
Box1 again.
But will any of these birds go inside?
Ah yes. At least Bella comes up trumps.
This is the start of a long saga where Bella keeps bringing nesting material into the box and then taking it out again!
Once inside the box, she doesn't seem to know quite what to do with it.
Then 30 seconds later she flies out with it again!
An hour and a half has passed and here is Bella back again with some moss - at least there is plenty of it in our lawn!
A final look round and then she goes inside with it.
What will she do with it this time?
Take it out again of course!
Perhaps she has decided that moss is the wrong stuff? This time she has brought in some hay.
But where to put it?
She appears to put it down on the floor, but clearly doesn't drop it completely, because ...
... when she leaves the box immediately after, she appears to be taking it with her!
She has clearly got something in her beak, but ...
... not all of it, as the bulk of the hay drops to the floor of the box as she leaves.
Now was that deliberate or accidental?
Thirty seconds later she is back again. She picks up the hay ...
... and goes out with it ...
... but immediately turns round and comes back inside with it again.
So what are you going to do with it now Bella?
Take it out again apparently!
When nests get started this early in the season, the female appears to spend her time doing this type of thing day after day. It helps to make her more proficient in nest building, and keeps her around the box all the time, which makes it less likely that some other bird will sneak in and take the box over while she is elsewhere!