Today Zoe completes the cleaning of Box3.
This morning we got up earlier than usual for some strange reason - and found that as it was so early, the box lights hadn't yet switched on. This image was taken using the infra red capabilities of the side mounted camera! Not bad for an IR image is it!
Well, Zoe doesn't hang about. By 8 o'clock she is well into it again ...
... and 20 minutes later, she has to look closely to see anything else to do!
This is clearly a male and to judge from its heavy build, must be Will who will have come to admire her handiwork - though if it had been he who was roosting, he would probably have created as much mess as Harry.
There's obviously something outside he doesn't like. However, it was beyond the range of our cameras and we never found out what upset him. He left about 30 seconds later.
This is Zoe - back in the nest box - sorry - back in her nest box again.
Another lesson in how to sex bluetits coming up! See the top of Zoe's head and compare this with that of Will in the two pictures above.
Isn't she a beautiful bird!
This, of course, is Zoe ...
... and this is Will standing in more or less the same position. He is a much sturdier bird - a fact that is typical of a male.
This is taken at the same time and shows Will's head from above. Again, it is streakier than Zoe's head.
Nearly an hour later, a bird approaches an empty nest box.
Now who's this? Is it Zoe? Or perhaps even Harry?
Harry looks much less typically male than Will. Right from the start when Will and Harry had their first recorded fight on Christmas Day, I was worried about what sex the bird fighting Will was.
His head looks much more like a female's head than Will's does. And he hasn't got Will's heavy build. Still, in spite of this he won the first fight he and Will had!
I think he is sturdier looking than Zoe though.
He hops up onto the shelf - his favourite spot - his roosting spot!
Ah! Here comes Will. I think that settles it doesn't it. The bird in the box must be Harry!
What are you getting up to now - I thought we'd seen the last of you in my nest box!"
(Yes, I know it's Zoe's nest box really, but you have to let these males think they are the important ones!)
Harry doesn't wait to see what Will will do - he's off in a flash ...
... and away!
I bet he'll still be back to roost though.
"Well, that got rid of him then!"
And did Harry roost in Box3 that night?
Of course. It'll take more than that to stop him!