Bluetit Diary    May 2010 (3)

 

 

Wednesday 12th May, 2010

While the two females are incubating their eggs, there is nothing much to report.  However, some days ago I forecast that Rosie's eggs would start hatching yesterday or today, so I was very relieved when I saw her with some eggshell this morning.

At last something seems to be happening!  It is 8:35am and here is a picture of Rosie with a piece of eggshell in her beak.

Four minutes later, the other half piece appeared.  Rosie has still not shown us her chick though!

It is 15 minutes before we catch a glimpse of the chick.  Rosie has left the nest box, whether to collect food or to tell Will I don't know.

As you can see, the chick is already begging for food!

Rosie wasn't off the nest for long - long enough, however, to be able to let Will know that he is now a Daddy!

You can see from this angle that both parents have food for the chick.  (It is Rosie nearer the camera.)

The two parents seem a bit confused.  They both have food, but neither of them seems to know what to do with it!  I hope for the chicks' sake, that they learn quickly!

Two and a half hours later, still only one egg has hatched.

Here Will is passing a piece of food to Rosie without even coming into the nest box!

A minute later, he is back with more.

There appears to be plenty of food about, which is a relief remembering the disasters of recent years!

This picture shows Will has a common problem with newly hatched chicks.  He has come to the nest with food only to find that Rosie isn't there.  Clearly, he doesn't know what  to do.

He made several attempts to give the food to the chick, but it didn't respond to him, and so in the end he flew out again with the food still in his beak!

This time Rosie's there - so that's all right!

At two o'clock as I come to write this entry, there is still only one hatched chick in the nest box.  They should all hatch over the next 24 hours.

We shall see!