Bluetit Diary    May 2013 (4)

 

 

Monday 6th May 2013 (cont)

Scruff comes into Box2 while Sally is incubating.

She seems to have something green in her beak - it looks like a piece of leaf rather than an insect though.

She doesn't quite know what to do with it and eventually just drops it and leaves the box.

I think this shows 17 eggs again!

Scruff sitting on the eggs.  Has she started incubating them too?

Sally comes back - and Scruff's first reaction is to beg for food from her!

Sally doesn't appear to know what to do and after a short while she goes out of the nest box again, leaving Scruff sitting on the eggs.

A few seconds later, she is back again ...

... and this time she is more persistent ...

... with the result that this time it is Scruff who goes!

At last - a clear picture of 17 eggs!

It's now getting towards the end of the day and perhaps Scruff is hoping to roost in the box tonight.

She doesn't actually attack Sally, she just does her usual thing of trying to dig down to the bottom of the nest cup.

This seems to disturb Sally so much that eventually she leaves the nest box.

She comes back pretty quickly, but her attempt to regain control is pretty half hearted and it fails to make any impression on Scruff - so Sally leaves again.

Another couple of minutes pass and then Sally tries again.

This time after a bit of squabbling they both appear to try to leave the box at the same time - leaving us a good view of all 17 eggs!

Scruff actually gets out first, so Sally changes her mind and goes back to the eggs ...

... and settles down on them

Scruff makes another couple of attempts to displace Sally, but Sally won't budge and is still in control when the system shuts down at about 10 past eight.