We have an egg! Or perhaps I should calm down a bit and say that Della has laid her first egg!
Although we had realised that Della's nest was more or less finished, I must admit that we had not expected her to lay her first egg this early. The season is very late this year - the buds on the oak tree to which Della's box it fixed are still pretty firmly shut. I hope she has got the timing right!
Over in Box3, Rosie (for that's the name we have decided to call her) is busy nest building again.
Rosie is just full of nesting wriggles. All females do them but Rosie appears to do them more than most. I hope her partner (to be called Will) looks after her properly.
Here comes Rosie with another load.
Well she managed to get it into the nest box all right this time!
Another wriggle ...
... and another!
I don't know what is happening here. Somewhere under this lot is Rosie. You can just see her head upside down at the bottom of the picture.
That's better. (This picture was taken 1 second later!)
Yet another wriggle.
And another. Save your energy for building your nest Rosie, or it won't be ready for when you want to lay your first egg!
By the end of the day, this was the state of Rosie's nest. She's done quite well in the two days she has been building it, but there's still a long way to go!
I hope I have judged the angle that the sideways camera takes pictures correctly. I have assumed an eventual depth of nesting material about 6 centimeters.
Still, if it is wrong, it's too late to do anything about it now!