Bird Box Camera Page3 - Chicks		See the links page for other nest sites.

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				29 Apr Three chicks hatched out at about 5pm today.
				The male brings in the food, the female takes it from him (he seems a bit reluctant to let go of it!) and passes it on to the chicks.
				30 Apr Two more chicks hatched during the night. Usually, the female eats the shells but this one threw them out of the box at first light.
				The male paid his first feeding visit at 5.40am. The female then set off on food missions herself after 7am.
				1 May Nine chicks in total now, one egg remaining. It's possible from this view to tell which one hatched during the night, it being just a bit smaller than the others!
				Plenty of mouths to feed.
				2 May The male paid the first feeding visit at his 'usual' time, just before 6am.....
				..... and passed it to the female to give to the chicks. He only enters the box if the female is sitting on the nest, otherwise she flies up to the hole. In the first 90 minutes, the chicks were fed 37 times. It's difficult to make out exactly how many chicks there are, though the tenth egg seems to have vanished.
				Sun 4 May On Friday, a chick trying to reach higher than the others to be fed got stuck behind its mother's wing and was thrown off outside the nest cup. Once back in, it tried to climb up mother's back and got thrown off again. In a temperature of 11C, it quickly perished. As to how many chicks remain, here there are 9 on view, so now we know that all 10 hatched successfully.
				Feeding started early, 5.20am. Here, the female lets her mate feed a determined chick himself - this is certainly unusual.
				Mon 5 May A very busy night for our occupant and her offspring, not a moment's peace!
				The female set off on the first food mission at 5.25am - this took only 30 seconds, and having returned her mate turned up. In the first two hours, together they made 50 feeding visits.

On Wed 7 May, a cat visited in the early hours of the morning. See .

				Fri 9 May The eyes of some of the chicks appear to be open now, especially this one which correctly judged the direction the feed was coming from.
				Sat 10 May One chick (top right) tests it's wings.
				Getting to be a bit of a scrum in there! The mother bird spent last night on the nest, but it won't be long before she ceases to do this.
				Sun 11 May Impossible to keep the whole brood covered now!
				More chicks have been trying their wings.
				A rare moment of peace!

On Mon 12 May, the same cat re-visited, but again the birds were lucky. See .

				Tue 13 May You might think a parent is present in this view - not so, it's one of the larger offspring!
				Feed me first!!!
				Wed 14 May A fairly quiet night, except for mother's frequent burrowing down to the bottom of the nest to create more space and remove droppings. Here one of her offspring, irritated by all this activity close by, moves away by climbing over the top of her.
				The first feed of the day. Being 25 minutes before sunrise, the response from the chicks is very muted......
				......back to normal later on though!
				Thu 15 May A quiet night for a change!
				The larger of the offspring are now more interested in where the parent bird arrived from than in the food being offered. (The parent is already in the box, off the top of the picture).
				Much preening of feathers and testing of wings. It should now only be 2-3 days before they leave the nest.
				Fri 16 May One of the largest chicks managed to reach the hole and look out - seemed a bit unsteady on it's legs though........
				......then got knocked off by the departure of the impatient parent! There remain eight chicks, though two are much smaller and one seems uninterested in food, even though the parents offer it. On average, only 13% of Great Tit fledglings survive to reach the following spring, so it helps to get as many out of the nest as possible.
				Sat 17 May One of the chicks flew up to the hole and spent 5 minutes surveying the outside world. At 07:15, it left the nest.

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