On Thursday 12th we had a visit from a nuthatch. The hole is too small for him though.
More interesting things have happened today. First, though, a few pictures of events in Box2.
Immediately the nuthatch departed, Jess came rushing back!
On Friday 13th we managed to capture a clear shot of Jess's four eggs ...
... and the next day, not surprisingly, she had five!
Today something rather more interesting happened. It all started innocently enough with James bringing some food for Jess. James is at the top of the picture and you can just see it in his beak.
Clearly something was a bit unusual as James then put his foot on Jess's shoulder and she started to quiver her wings. Perhaps they both have something other than food on their minds?
It certainly looks like it!
James is mounting Jess and it looks as though they birds are about to mate.
The female in this situation does not have to do very much that we can see, except perhaps to cooperate by keeping still! You can see that James hasn't even waited until after the meal - the food is still visible in his beak!
It all happens very quickly, and afterwards James again apparently offers the food to Jess. She, though, is still quivering her wings and asking for more.
What's he up to now?
It's obviously not just James whose mind is on other matters! James still has the food in his beak but his foot is again on Jess's back and she is quivering her wings enticingly.
Jess is doing her best to encourage him, but I think James has had enough for the moment.
Finally, as she gets no response from James, Jess decides to leave the nest box and leave James to it.
James leaves a few seconds later. All the six eggs that have been laid so far can be seen here!
In all the years we have been watching the bluetits in our garden, this is the first time we have seen them mating in the nest box after the start of egg laying!