Ben continues to bring food for Bella, who is now sitting on her eggs most of the time.
Bella is just getting off her eggs, presumably to go outside . . .
. . . when Ben comes into the box.
First he feeds her . . .
. . . and then he displays to her - presumably hoping to mate with her again!
"Don't be ridiculous!" appears to be Bella's reaction, so Ben turns away . . .
. . . and leaves the nest box.
Bella is soon back sitting on her eggs.
Ben certainly looks after Bella very well indeed. Over the years we have observed a wide range in the frequency with which male bluetits bring food for their incubating partners. Ben is at the very solicitous end of the scale.
More food for Bella.
Yet more food!
Ann has now laid 7 eggs. The 11 eggs in Box2 is well above the average clutch size that we have had since we started recording such things in 2001, which stands at 8.9 eggs. I wonder how many more Ann will lay in Box1?
Interestingly, we have hosted great tits five times so far and on four of those occasions only 5 eggs were laid. The fifth clutch had 6 eggs! Our Field Guide quotes 9.5 eggs as the average bluetit clutch, and the BTO quotes an average clutch of 10 eggs - not too far from our experience. The gap is much wider for great tits where our Field Guide quotes 10.5 eggs and the BTO quotes only 8. I wonder why our great tits are so different? (Follow the links for more BTO data about these bird species.)
Finally, the largest clutch we have ever had laid by one female is 12 eggs which was laid once in 2009. We have also previously had 4 clutches of 11 eggs. So 11 eggs in a clutch is unusual, but not unknown!