Only a few days to go now before the chicks leave the nest box, never to return.
Well not this year anyway. It is of course possible that a chick from this years brood with rear its own brood of chicks in this box next year! But it will have to beat off significant opposition to do so.
Scrap has positioned himself right under the nest box entrance hole. All that means is that the parent flies over him when it comes with food.
He's still there. He obviously thinks it is the right place to be.
What a miserable physical specimen he is. I can't see him surviving long outside the nest box - assuming he manages to get out!
All 7 chicks gaping in expectation of a visit.
Here comes Mum (or Dad, of course!)
She flies over Scrap and addresses the rest of the chicks which are still in the nest cup.
Interestingly, she doesn't automatically try to feed the nearest chick. I suppose that by picking a gape to pass the food to at random means that all the chicks get a reasonably share.
Well, will they fledge on Saturday as I was expecting, or will they go earlier than that?