Quite a lot has happened today. Where do I start?
In Box3, Chris now has 6 eggs. I wonder how many more she will produce? In our experience, bluetits seem to produce from 6 to 10 eggs each brood, though sometime it is more than this. Our Field Guide suggests the number is normally 7-12,sometimes 5-16, though we have never had more than 12 produced by one female.
The most we have had laid in one nest is 21 in Box2 in 2013, but these were laid by two females!
In Box2, we finally catch sight of Hugh, who for all his presumed work behind the scenes, has been missing on the front line! Here he is feeding one of our two females - the one that happens to be sitting on the nest at the moment.
He appears to have some difficulty actually letting go of the food he had brought. Eventually Bess(?) had to grab it from him!
Five minutes later he was back again - this time with a mealworm thoughtfully put out by Elizabeth.
It looks as though Hugh has got the message - here he is with another food delivery.
A couple of minutes later and he is back with another mealworm.
This time there doesn't seem to be a problem.
the last three pictures were taken within one second - well done Hugh!
There are at least 16 eggs here. I think that it is only Spikey that is laying now - Bess stopped after she had laid her seventh egg on 26th April. Maybe she laid one more, it is difficult to tell how many eggs are in the nest as ones on the edge of the nest cup tend to get covered up.
In the following sequence things are more confused. It looks as though Bess is bringing in some more hay when Spikey is on the nest.
She attempt to feed Spikey with the hay - and Spikey opens her beak for it. They probably both think it is some food.
Spikey isn't really interested . . .
. . . and after a bit of messing around, Bess goes off again, leaving Spikey still in charge.
Twenty minutes have now passed and this time it is Hugh with some real food for the female on the nest cup(presumably still Spikey!)
This sequence is another example of how Bess manages Spikey. Three and a half hours have passed and I think it is again Spikey that is on the nest cup.
Bess comes into the nest box.
She carefully lands in a non-threatening position.
She then proceeds to do a nesting wriggle partially over Spikey.
Then she starts to do a bit of housework at the edge of the nest cup.
Spikey seems to find Bess's actions a bit disconcerting and gets up from the nest cup.
Bess continues to burrow down into the nest cup . . .
. . . and then stands back a bit as if to say "Come on girl, it's my turn now!"
Whatever the reason, Spikey gets up off the nest cup . . .
. . . and departs . . .
. . . leaving Bess in sole charge of the eggs. So Bess gets "her turn" on the eggs!