We had some trouble in Box1 today. The problem with these episodes is that everything happens so quickly that you often can't really see what has happened!
We start with Donna landing on the entrance to Box1. How do we know it's Donna I hear you say!
In she goes.
As you can see - this is a female bluetit. But is it Donna?
After about 20 seconds she seems to stop and look apprehensively towards the entrance. At the moment, the outside camera does not show anything so I presume she must have heard something.
Suddenly, another bluetit appears and lands on the entrance. This must also be a female as you can see quite a large lump of moss in her beak.
Whoever she is, she is clearly not welcomed by the female inside.
Is Mick stringing along two females or has the box ownership still not been settled?
This bluetit spends the next 20 seconds or so hesitating about what to do. Eventually, she throws her nesting material away (you can just make out the moss flying away to the right as she throws it!) ...
... and in spite of the protestations from the bluetit inside ...
... she goes into the box.
Now, all hell breaks loose and it's more or less impossible to see what is happening.
However, it is at least clear that these birds are fighting!
This and the following pictures are the entire sequence that was captured.
!
Go on Donna!
I think she's winning!
Out goes the loser ...
... whilst Donna recovers inside.
(You can rest assured that whoever won, her name is Donna!)
While Donna catches her breath, you can see the feathers torn off the participants floating gently to the floor of the box. (For example, there is one still floating down just near Donna's right cheek.)
Donna leaves the box about a minute later. Here you can see that there is now quite a large number of feathers on the floor of the box. Still, they will help to make the nest a cosy one!