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				Mon 9 Feb The box had been removed for maintenance for several weeks, but almost as soon as it was put back up, a Great Tit moved in. Exterior woodstain was used on the box & this clearly does not deter the birds. A modest amount of nest-building continued today.
				Back in the box well before dusk, with a long preening session!

				Wed 11 Feb Having started early, nest building is not needing to proceed at such a frenetic pace this year. Probably also influenced by a lack of insects.
				The box was unoccupied for a couple of hours late this afternoon; presumably this allowed the spider entering the top of the picture time to produce the web that it is seen here crawling purposefully across.

				Mon 16 Feb In this sequence of four pictures, the male arrives first with some food...
				... quickly followed by the female, who reaches for the food, but her mate won't let her take it.
				At the third attempt, he lets go of the food...
				... and (as is usually the way) quickly flies away.

				Sun 22 Feb A bit more material has been brought in, but the birds are in no hurry to finish the nest.

				Tue 9 Mar Much more progress now on building the nest!

				Mon 15 Mar Still working away.... having already covered over the side camera.

				Tue 16 Mar The box was opened up this morning to adjust the camera angle, clear the view from the side camera and fit a light to the top of the box (now that the side camera is a colour one). Provided that not too much changes inside the box, this activity doesn't put the birds off and here was proof of that - within a few minutes nest building was under way again with renewed vigour.

	Wed 17 March ZZZzzzz! Mild temperatures and a minimum number of creepy-crawlies allowed our occupant a quiet night.

				Thu 18 March More nest material obscuring the view from the colour camera was pressed down (again) and within 15 minutes (again), a bird was in the box with yet more nest material! The light (for the colour camera) was tried with the female bird in the box at 5.30pm; she seemed confused as to why the sun was shining inside but not out. So the light was switched off & she tucked her head under her wing & went to sleep!

				Tue 23 March Our occupant arrived back at the box at about 17.45. Here she deepens the roosting hollow.
				The Great Tit's black belly stripe is easily seen with the monochrome cameras, however in this colour view, the pale yellow colour of the rest of the breast plumage can also be seen.
				Calling to her mate, who arrived shortly afterwards.

				Fri 26 March A bit late today switching off the light for the colour camera..... our occupant is looking distinctly sleepy.
				After a moment, she perks up & expands the nest hollow.
				Not sure what she's got her eye on here..... When the light was switched off, surprisingly our bird didn't seem at all alarmed & promptly starting preening her feathers & within a few minutes tucked her head under a wing & nodded off.

				Sat 27 March Here the side camera comes in for close inspection; maybe our bird can see her reflection in the lens.
				Having already fluffed up her feathers in anticipation of dusk, here she reaches up to look out of the hole, probably wondering why dusk is so long in coming inside the box.
				Waiting patiently for the light to go out....
				.... and as soon as it does, attends to her feathers. (The colour camera is just off the top of the picture).
				Within a few minutes she's off to sleep.

				Tue 30 March Looking rather like a feather duster, our bird has got so used to the light inside the box that she now tucks her head under a wing even before the light has been switched off.

				Sun 4 April Our bird has a snooze whilst waiting for the light to be switched off. She will only attend to her feathers after the light has gone out.

				Tue 6 April Our bird must have been tired, as she nodded off well before dusk.
				Once the light was switched off, the recently seen pattern of behaviour was repeated - when our bird next wakes up, she has a preening session & goes back to sleep facing in the opposite direction (the colour camera is just off the top of this picture).

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