Bluetit Diary    May 2012 (2)

 

 

Tuesday 1sy May 2012 (cont)

This looks like chick number 3 - Jess has another piece of eggshell in her beak.

More food for his growing family from James.

Six unhatched eggs means that three chicks have hatched.

Another visit with food by James.

There seem to be only 5 whole eggs here, so perhaps I missed a chick hatching out!  Or perhaps I can't count eggs any more accurately than I can count pink blobs!

In this picture, Jess is begging for the food that James has just brought in.  Why this different behaviour?  Is she asking for food for herself rather than for the chicks?

James has brought a small green caterpillar.  It sis probably too large for the chicks anyway and after a little while, Jess flew out of the nest box with it.

Whether she eats it herself, or processes it into a smaller piece which she brings back and feeds to a chick is not clear.

More egg shell!  This was probably from the fourth chick to hatch.

Twenty minutes later you can see that there are still 5 unhatched eggs in the nest.  So the previous piece of eggshell must have come from the fourth egg rather than from yet another egg hatching!