Poppy's eggs have started to hatch. This chick must have hatched early this morning before we switched on.
We now have a diversion from Box2 as the eggs in Box1 are starting to hatch!
This is the second chick to hatch out. Having reached this stage, we would normally be optimistic about the prospects for this brood, but since 24th May there has been no sign of Patch, and there is no way Poppy can rear these chicks by herself!
Poppy is eating a piece of eggshell. Whether this is from the second egg or a third chick has hatched is not yet clear.
Three eggs have now hatched.
Twenty minutes later and there is another piece of eggshell - a fourth chick perhaps?
It is now nearing the end of the day and Poppy has at last four chicks and two eggs. The seventh egg may have already hatched or it may just be hidden at the bottom of the nest.
More serious is the fact that there is still no sign of Patch. Sometimes males take a few hours to cotton on to the fact that their offspring have started to appear, but this time I fear that Patch's absence is permanent.
Back in Box2, life goes on. Elizabeth has clearly been putting out mealworms again and no good parent ignores an easy meal like this.
Nothing of significance happened during the day and by the time evening came, there were still 6 chicks in the box.
It is now about half past seven, and it looks as though the chicks are settling down for the night.
Hugh comes in with a late feed ...
... and this seems to put the idea of the outside world in one of the chicks' mind. You can see it looking intently at the hole through which Hugh had just left them.
It then surprises us, and maybe even itself, by jumping up to the hole and looking out. This was the first time we had noticed one of the chicks doing this.
It settles in the hole looking out for several seconds. You can see how stumpy its tail still is.
We thought that it would drop back into the nest box and that would be that for this evening. Surely it wasn't going to leave the box tonight - after all it is about half past seven?
You never know though. It stays there for quite a while looking around.
How on earth does a chick that has never seen anything other than the inside the nest box make sense of the outside world?
And then it amazed us by leaping into the air and trying to fly off.
It's not doing badly though, it is still climbing!
This was the last shot we had of this intrepid chick. We hope its parents looked after it during its first night!
(Chick 1)
And now there are only 5 chicks left in the box.
None of them even looked out of the box, let alone looked like following the first chick's lead.
For that we shall have to wait until tomorrow!