The
female then spent quite a long time taking stock of their potential new
home.
In
this shot you can compare the size of her black patch and the stripe down
her front with that shown on the male earlier - clearly the patch is smaller
and the stripe is thinner.
At the
time, we thought she was taking a long time to look around. What we
hadn't realised was how desperate these great tits were to find a new home.
We
suddenly realised that the male was watching anxiously from outside the box
- did she like the home he had found for her?
A mere
twelve minutes later we had our answer - in she flew with a huge beakful of moss!
Suddenly
we saw that great tit females do nesting wriggles too! I suppose we
shouldn't be surprised to see so much common behaviour between the two
species.
Once
this bird has made her mind up, there's no stopping her. She was
coming and going for most of the rest of the day. This shot was taken shortly
before four o'clock and already she has nearly covered the floor of the nest
box.
At the
end of the day, this is what the box looked like.
Poor Carlos. Would he try to roost again tonight? But no - we saw no sign of him. We only hope that we are right in thinking that he and Megan have a nearly completed nest somewhere else!
Just
to remind you in case in the excitement you had forgotten - here is Kelly
settling down to sleep on her nest.