This is the first picture of Box1 today. What's Ann up to?
Andy pays a visit shortly after. It looks like more food for Ann.
And again. What's got Andy so excited? That's two feeds within 3 minutes!
Now we see what is happening. An egg has hatched!
Somehow Andy cottoned on pretty quickly. This is the third time he has brought food in the last 18 minutes. Up until now, that would have been his ration for the day!
Yet more food - and it's only 2 minutes since the last one!
Ann is eating another piece of shell. Another chick must have hatched out.
The fact that the eggs have started to hatch has transformed Andy from being a pretty laid-back partner, just doing the bare minimum to keep Ann satisfied, to a very active one often bringing food every few minutes!
Here you can see the first two chicks.
Half an hour later there are three!
Andy has arrived to find Ann busy eating the last chick's egg shell.
Not to be thwarted by little things like that, Andy tries to feed the chick himself.
He must have failed to do that as a couple of seconds later he is passing the food to Ann.
Andy has now gone (for more food presumably!) and Ann tries to persuade one of the chicks to take it.
Another piece of egg shell.
At the end of the day (well my bird watching day anyway!) it is not clear how many chicks have hatched. You can still see at least 4 eggs that are still intact so we could have up to 7 chicks here!
It may be time for my system to shut down for the night, but Andy is still working his socks off bringing food for Ann and the chicks.
Picking up what has happened today in Box2, you can see that the chicks are now covered in blackish down.
It also looks as though their eyes are starting to open. You can just see small slits in what was previously just a big black bulge of the eyelids.
In the ten minute period starting at 10 o'clock, I counted 19 visits from a parent with food - that's almost one every 30 seconds. No wonder these chicks are thriving!
You can see 11 chicks here.
Both parents with 9 chicks visible.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to see what our birds are up to next week as I will be away on holiday, so my PC will be switched off. Let's hope they all fare well!