Poppy is still there doing her best, but we are now down to just two chicks.
Thursday 9th June, 2016
Now just a single chick is left.
There is no sign of any dead bodies, so Poppy must have been removing them pretty promptly. It is therefore surprising that I haven't seen a single instance of her removing one during the day. It must have happened, so I must have missed seeing it.
Poppy has just come back to the nest box, but surprisingly, she doesn't seem to have any food for her chick.
Without food to feed her chick, all she can do is keep it warm, so she settles down to brood the remaining chick.
She doesn't stay long. Twelve minutes later she gets off the nest and leaves the box.
The solitary chick must have been the one that hatched significantly later than all the rest. It is still pretty active, and if fed, I would have though it would have survived.
We have had instances when the male has disappeared before, though never as early in the cycle as this. On at least one such occasion, the female has managed to provide enough food for several of the chicks to fledge.
Poppy's heart doesn't seem in it!
It is now just after 7pm. The last chick is still alive but Poppy has not been back to the nest box since midday.
Here she is again though and this time she has something pretty substantial in her beak.
This time, however, the chick does not respond to Poppy entering the nest box. Perhaps it is just too weak.
Poppy is clearly puzzled by this behaviour and leaves the nest box with the food still in her beak.
Whereupon the chick becomes more animated and here it can be seen seeking food.
Too late! Poppy does not come back and in the morning this last chick was dead.
I wonder what happened to Patch. The last time he came to the nest box was on 24th May when after several days without his being seen, he appeared on three or four occasions. Perhaps he was predated. On the other hand, and I think this is more likely, perhaps he was just not a good parent and did not deserve to spread his genes!
Poor Poppy!