Bluetit Diary    May 2011 (9)

 

 

Wednesday 11th May, 2011

So how many chicks do Joy and Dave have?

You can see 8 gapes and 1 closed beak here.

Does this picture taken a few seconds later show 10?

Yes!  You can definitely see 10 beaks here - even though they are all closed.  So every egg has hatched successfully and produced a viable chick.

Nature has devised an excellent way of helping the parents know where to put food!

Congratulations Joy and Dave! 

Dave is at the top and Joy at the bottom - their head feathers are easily distinguished - and both appear to be carrying food for the chicks.

Nine hungry chicks in Box2 towards the end of the day.

Finally, this is a shot of Amy in Box1.  Trying to decide how many chicks have successfully hatched from the huge clutch that Amy was sitting on is much more difficult.

Here you can distinguish 7 chicks, but she probably has more.

I wonder whether the eggs laid by the other female were fertile?