Al Woods Photo

  About 23 degrees today! Even hotter they say tomorrow, possibly getting up to 26. Flowers are really beginning to bloom now. This Peony is fantastic when it opens fully. This yellow Poppy has also bloomed and looks nice against the foliage. Looks like the Blue Tits have found a supply of caterpillars.

The chicks have their eyes open now. The feathers are also showing some colour now. This video also shows the parent bird removing a faecal sac from the chick to keep the nest tidy. They are very restless and sometimes get all the way out of the nest. This parent bird has obviously had a rough time searching for food! However, they do scrub up very nicely. This is a parent taking one of the small green caterpillars into the nest.  

This video shows how fast the chicks are developing. This fellow is beating his wings like he's ready to take off! It seems that there are only three chicks in the nest. I'm not sure what's happened to the rest yet. There are three possibilities: 1)     The chicks have died from natural causes and the parents have disposed of them or left them at the bottom of the nest. 2)     Predators have taken them from the nest. Magpies or cats would be the main suspects. I find this unlikely because the nest is still in tact. 3)     The chicks have been culled because there were just too many mouths to feed. The cold and wet weather we have experienced may have contributed to the lack of food. After researching Blue Tits I discovered that they lay their eggs only when they know that certain food items will be available. The main source is a certain moth caterpillar that is found around oak trees. Each chick can consume up to 100 of these caterpillars per day. With nin...

The chicks are developing really fast now. They already have their first feathers coming. They are getting quite large now too. I can't see all the chicks in the nest. I hope they are all ok. We are surrounded by these fellows! You can hear them all over the place, but we can't seem to entice them into the garden properly. They just pay a short visit occasionally.  

The constant search for food continues with the parents. Looks like some spiders on the menu here! The weather is very dismal and wet today but it doesn't deter the parents.  

All the eggs did hatch and I'm guessing there's nine chicks, but it is so difficult to count them all. They will take about 3 weeks before they are ready to fledge. Meanwhile, the parents work frantically to keep all those mouths fed!  

It must have happened overnight or at least early this morning. Chicks at last! I don't think they are all hatched yet though. Both parents are very busy working together now to feed them all.  

So it seems like the female has finished laying eggs. There are nine in total and she seems to be concentrating on incubation by sitting on them virtually all day and night.  

I took another egg count in the Blue Tit box. We are up to at least eight now. The other birds in the garden really appreciate the bird bath in the hot sun. House Sparrows really love it. But the Blackbirds also like to have a go. This one was cleaning itself after a quick dip! But taking an early morning dip isn't for everyone. This Robin would rather just take a drink from it and then look for worms on the lawn.