At the start of this sequence, all is quiet in Box3.
Suddenly, the chicks are alerted by the noise made by Zoe coming into the nest box. Immediately, all the chicks reach up and open their beaks in the hope of having food stuffed down them.
Although their eyes are beginning to open, the chicks still react to the sound of the parent birds arriving, not because they have seen them. I doubt that they can see very much yet, nor are they likely to be able to make sense of what they see - that will come in due course.
In the very early days, the parent birds had to chirrup on arrival in order to tell the chicks that food had arrived. There is no need for them to do that now!
Zoe has brought a great big green caterpillar - it is almost as long and fat as the chicks' necks!
We hear that others appear to have suffered from a lack of food this year. We don't seem to have that problem here, surrounded as we are by hedges and trees, including two large oak trees at the edge of our garden.
Zoe tries to get a chick to take the caterpillar and puts it in its open beak. The poor chick doesn't seem to know what to do with it and stays there apparently not attempting to swallow it.
Normally in these circumstances, Zoe would take the caterpillar back and try offering it to another chicks.
She is interrupted by Will coming into the box with a much more manageable offering ...
... and he quickly finds a chick eager to take it. Zoe appears to have forgotten her caterpillar and is trying to attract Will's attention.
Zoe is fluttering her wings at Will in typical "feed me" fashion. We have noticed that she often does this when Will comes into the box while she is there.
The chick with the caterpillar appears to be making no progress at all - and Zoe seems to have lost interest in it!
Then something interesting happens. Will leans over and takes the caterpillar from the struggling chick ...
... and tries again to get it to take it.
When Will totally ignores Zoe's fluttering, she decides to go. Whether she flies off in a huff or is just going to get more food for the chicks is a matter of conjecture!
Anyway, she departs ...
... leaving the problem of the large caterpillar with Will!
He tries unsuccessfully to get several of the other chicks to take it, so eventually ...
... he moves round to where Zoe had been and tries again to get the original chick to take it.
This time the chick is receptive and manages to start swallowing it.
Will it manage it? It looks like it ...
... with the nearly inevitable consequence of the chick delivering a packet of poo ...
... which Will, the good parent that he is, collects ...
... and takes out of the nest box.
The noise of his departure gets all the chicks excited again. More food perhaps?
(Interestingly, you can see the chick's wing development quite clearly here. It has reached the pin stage where the spine of the feather has grown but there is little or no feather on it yet!)
But no - and after 10 to 15 seconds peace reigns again inside the nest box.
Until the next feed!