It's the start of another day - and in the nest box we still have 6 live chicks and 2 dead ones - and an egg!
Elizabeth has again been putting out mealworms. That always gets all our birds excited!
A rather unusual shot. How many sites could show you three parents feeding their joint brood of chicks?
Hugh is at the top. Of the other two birds, I cannot say for certain which is Spikey and which is Bess but I think Spikey is at the bottom and Bess at the left hand side.
Click on the image for a larger version of this unusual picture.
One of the Mums has got it into her head that this dead chick should be in the nest cup. Perhaps she is
hoping that it isn't really dead and so needs to be kept warm with the others.
Here she is dragging it
back to the top of the cup.
Once she has got it there, she leaves it and look set to leave the nest box! You may just be able to see its feet in the air at the top of the nest cup.
Before she leaves she has yet another go at removing the other dead body. This attempt,
like all the rest, fails. She has another go directly after this one and that fails too.
Obviously,
keeping the nest clean is very important to these birds.
Surely these chicks will fledge soon. This one is doing a really good bit of wing flapping!
Suddenly Mum decides to have another go at removing a dead body. This time she picks up the body that she, or the other Mum - who can tell! - has dragged to the nest cup earlier.
She takes it to the nest box hole ...
... but again she is unsuccessful.
Half an hour later she has yet another go ...
... and this time ...
... she is successful!
Here you can see her still holding the body, presumably to make sure she takes in some way away from the nest site.
How about that for persistence!
All of this struggle has been watched by the remaining chicks as though it was the most normal thing in the world.
It's now half past seven and getting near the end of another day.
Finally, one of the chick obligingly shows off his wings for us. What a change has taken place over the last few days - and all on a diet of caterpillars!