Georgie now has 8 eggs in her Box1. So far she has laid one each day as is the normal way of these things.
Because many birds hide their eggs while they are in egg laying mode, it sometimes appears that more than one egg has been laid on a given day. However, this is not possible for bluetits - the maximum rate of egg production is one each day.
We are still puzzling over the two females in Box2.
This female is already in the box.
A second bluetit approaches the entrance outside.
When she comes into the box you can see that she has some nesting material in her beak. The first female does not like her coming in but the two birds do not fight. They merely appear to shout at each other!
For a period, it appears to be a stalemate. Neither bird gives way, but neither does either bird attack.
Suddenly the first bluetit decides to go - and leaves very rapidly.
This leaves the second bluetit in charge of the nest box. She still has the nesting material in her beak.
She seems to poke it into the nest somewhere ...
... and then she leaves the box too.
So what was that all about? Who won that round? Which of these two bluetits is laying the eggs?
Over two hours have passed and this time we are looking at Box1.
Here is Wills with some food for Georgie.
She stands up to take it ...
... and Wills immediately leaves.
Georgie settles down on the nest cup again.
She is not yet incubating, she just likes being there!
A couple of minutes later and Wills is back with another morsel. It looks as though Wills will be a conscientious father!
Their beaks touch ...
... and now Georgie has it.
Only eight minutes later, Wills is back with more.
What more could a girl want!
Today we also have a sight of the eggs in Box2. There are 7 of them so one is being laid each day.
If there are two females vying for this nest box, only one of them is laying eggs at the moment. Of course, it is much easier for the bird that is roosting in the box to lay an egg there. Last year when we had two females laying eggs in the nest for a period of several days, I assumed that the second female, Scruff, came in first thing in the morning when Sally had laid her egg and gone off to feed. However, we never saw this as it happened before we had the lights switched on in the morning.
Another shot of Georgie's 8 eggs.