Bluetit Diary    Feb 2011 (4)

 

 

Monday 7th February 2011 (cont)

The fight, which started at the box's entrance hole, soon moves to the floor.  Whether Will deliberately went into the box, or was dragged there by Harry is not clear.

What is clear is that for the next minute or two they were both going at it hammer and tongs!

Here Will is at the top of the picture with Harry at the bottom.

This time it's even more savage than the fight on Christmas Day.  It is a miracle that neither of them seems to end up getting badly hurt!

Will again is at the top.

While Harry and Will are fighting inside the box, Zoe comes to see what is going on.

Whether they are fighting over her or the nest box is not clear.

She actually appears to have a look inside the box to see what is going on!

After this peer inside the box she flies off again but three seconds later she is back for a second look!

Then she flies off again before coming back a third time!  She must realise that this battle is rather important to her too.

The fight inside continues and now Will is on top.

They stay in this position for several seconds.  It's almost as though neither has the energy to carry on.

Suddenly in a flurry of wings one of the fighters decides he has had enough and leaves the box ...

... or tries to!  He finds he is still held by his claw.

Finally he gets free of this too.

Only a second later, the winner leaves too.

And here I have to come clean - I'm not sure whether the winner is Harry or Will!

There is a brief clash outside as the two birds face each other again.  However, this appears to be more about saving face rather than doing damage to the opposition and comes to nothing.

I think Harry is facing the camera and Will has his back to it.

Judging from what happens later, the victor in this battle is Will and this is him returning the the battle scene to gloat!

In he goes.

He enters the nest box and lands on the floor.

You can see that he does not have a damaged left wing feather so I am pretty sure that this is Will.

He does not stay long in the nest box.

Finally, twenty five seconds later Zoe re-enters the box.

As if nothing has happened, she starts to clean the box again.

She is determined that her box will be a clean box!

Off she goes with another pellet.

Finally by the end of the day, she has again made a big difference.  (This picture was taken at 5pm).

Now will Harry come to roost here again tonight!

Just after 5pm, a bluetit arrives rather tentatively.  He looks around but decides not to go inside the box.

Less than a minute later he is back and this time there is no hesitation - inside he goes.

Yes, Harry is back to roost.