At the start of the day, all 12 chicks are still in the nest box.
Will the chicks fledge today?
Shortly after 2 o'clock they are all still there and we are beginning to think that they will spend another night together.
We were to prove to be wrong!
Suddenly, shortly before 3pm, one of the chicks spends some time looking out of the box. Is this chick about to go?
No! That chick retreated but another flew up and took its place right away.
This chick had to move out of the way when Scruff came into the box with some food!
When Scruff left the box, all the chicks appeared excited about the great outside and tumbled over themselves in their eagerness to take a look.
Here you can see that one chick is already looking out and another is trying to fly up to take a look for himself.
The chick in the hole must be on the verge of falling out here! He hesitates only a little while longer ...
... and then he flies for the first time in his short life. One chick fledged and 11 still to go!
Remember, it is only 20 days since the first chicks hatched out in Box2!
With this number of chicks it is always difficult to tell how many there are in the box. However, here is a picture taken at about ten past seven which shows 11 chicks. Initially I thought it unlikely that a chick would fledge later than about half past seven and so stopped looking at that time.
Fortunately a member of our forum noticed that a chick fledged at 19:53, and posted to this effect, so here are the photographs!
This shows the 11 chicks as normal except for the one perched on the exit hole. It was there for some time, ...
... having a good look at the wide world outside the nest box - possibly for the first time ...
... and finally it plucked up its courage and flew!
Here are the remaining 10 chicks shortly after 9pm. It is now getting dark, and the chicks look as though they are settling, so this time I think I can be fairly confident in saying that no more chicks will fledge tonight!