Bluetit Diary    Apr 2012 (10)

 

 

Tuesday 17th April 2012

A nice domestic scene!  James brings Jess a piece of mealworm.

We put out mealworms for the smaller birds first thing each morning.  They're in a cage that prevents starlings and larger birds getting at them which means that they last for half an hour or so.  They are eaten mainly by bluetits and robins.

Jess clearly now has 8 eggs.  I wonder how many more she will lay?

 

 

Wednesday 18th April 2012

Well, she obviously laid another egg this morning.

We have also been watching Becky in Box1 but she still covers her eggs carefully whenever she leaves the nest box.  We really don't have a clue about how many she has laid so far.

Jess has been in the nest box and sitting on he eggs for most of the afternoon.  She appeared to start this at about 2pm.

Has she started to incubate?

 

 

Thursday 19th April 2012

James comes to the nest at about 10 o'clock but he doesn't appear to have any food with him.  Jess doesn't think much of this and leave the box directly after.

In the early afternoon, Jess leaves her eggs exposed - and there still seems to be only 9 eggs.  It looks as though she has stopped laying.

 

James appears to be an excellent partner.  He has fed Jess more than many males have done in the past!

It is pretty clear now that Jess has started to incubate her eggs.  he has been sitting on the eggs for most of the time since 11.30 this morning, so what with yesterdays time spent on the eggs, I thing we can call this the first full day of incubation.

Another fine shot of Jess's eggs - all nine of them.

We have noticed in the past that a bird that goes to great lengths to make sure her eggs are covered when she is away from the nest box while she is in egg laying mode, seems to forget all about this once she has started incubating!