Here
Claire is coming back to her nest in which you can clearly see that there
are 5 eggs. How many more will she lay?Judging from her behaviour yesterday, she thinks that she should start incubation already!
Except
when their behaviour make it clear, we are still having great difficulty
distinguishing Sam from Claire. Here Claire shows that she has an
extremely narrow tail. Is this going to be a way of separating them?
It
is interesting to see that there are still bluetits looking for a nest box.
I wonder if this is one of the pair that were in and out of the box earlier
in the season? And does this interest mean that they have found no
other place to make their nest?
This
is the start of an interesting sequence. It starts with Claire sitting
on her eggs, as she does most of the time now, waiting for the eggs to
hatch.
Sam
approaches the nest box with something in his beak.
Claire
responds by raising herself from the nest cup and approaching the nest box
hole.
Sam
jumps down onto the nest box entrance hole, but stays on the outside!
Claire
leans forward and Sam passes the food to her. It appears to be a fat
and juicy green caterpillar.She returns to her eggs, eating the caterpillar on the way.
A
quarter of an hour later, after she has gone out to stretch her wings,
Claire returns with some food in her beak.
Is
she looking for a chick to feed? If so, she is a trifle early.
There are 10 to 12 days to go yet!
She
seems rather puzzled and appears not to know what do to with the food!Finally, she decides to eat it herself.
A
few more images to finish today's postings.This is Claire "busy" incubating! She has spent most of today sitting on the eggs and I will be surprised if she lays any more.
The great tit that occupied this nest box last year also laid only 5 eggs. I wonder if it is the same bird?
A
shot of the eggs! The reddish-brown speckles are quite clear on these
eggs. Let's hope they all hatch out successfully!
Towards
the end of the day - another nest box hole feeding session. It's good
to see Sam taking his responsibilities seriously!
On
that note, I'll finish today's entry. I hope Kate will give us some
better pictures tomorrow of what she is up to than she has so far!