When
we switched on this morning, we found Will feeding the chicks in Box3.
Judging
from the first picture, he has a small insect and here he is thrusting
it down a chick's throat.
The
chick reaches up eagerly ...
... and it is not going to be satisfied by such a small offering.As you can see, at this stage the chicks are hardly things of beauty!
Not
satisfied at all! It is still begging for more and has been joined by
another chick.
So
ever the dutiful parent, Will goes off for more food.
He
is back a few minutes later with a little green caterpillar.
This
shot was taken nearly 10 minutes later. Will is back with another
caterpillar. These are the staple food of blue and great tits and
there seems plenty of them around at the moment.Will always feeds the chicks from the same place. It makes you wonder whether the food is shared out amongst the chicks, or whether just one or two get the lion's share.
It
is now 20 past eight and Elizabeth has put out some mealworms. Rosie
and Will quickly cotton on to this new easy source of food - as does Donna
in Box1 for that matter.
What
goes in one end must come out the other!Will with a faecal sac.
Will
removing the sac from the nest box area.
Another
mealworm feed.
A
couple of hours have passed since the above photos were taken. This
time it's Rosie who is trying to get a mealworm down one of the chicks.
She
really has to struggle to help the chicks get the mealworm down.
Has
it gone this time?
Another
feed two minutes later.
This
picture is a little tricky to make out. It shows one of the more
developed chicks lying on the side of the nest cup flanked by the heads of
two of the other chicks.Today is the warmest day of the year so far - much too hot for the chicks to stay close together in the nest cup.
You can clearly see that the centre chick's feathers are starting to develop.
The chicks are growing up fast!