Our birds are still with us,
and getting more and more active. A lot of
time is spent on preening, with occasional bouts of violent wing flapping.
We are providing good supplies of mealworms, and the hen runs a regular shuttle
service after the feeder has been topped up. After we have topped up the supply via a funnel held in an entry port, we bang with the spoon on the
arm of the wooden chair beneath, and we think the hen now recognises this
welcome sound. The faecal sacs are still being removed regularly - the
birds always wait a couple of seconds after delivering food, to see if there is
a faecal sack to be removed. On one occasion today, after the cock had
fed a chick and removed its sac, the hen arrived and fed another chick in
her turn. However she was confused by the stance of the first
chick and she pushed her head under its tail as if to ensure she
had not missed anything. When a chick has something to deliver, it arches in a tremendous back bend to
make it easy for the parent bird to collect and it takes some time to revert
to its normal posture.
We have another nest box in the front garden, and this also has a family of bluetits, though we do not know at what stage they are. We can no longer see the box from the house, as the foliage has grown round it, but we can hear the chicks cheeping, and can see the parents regularly taking in food. Malcolm is already making plans for next year's surveillance.
The video is set for tomorrow, which is the day we think they are likely to leave.
Right: Is that the way out?