| Apr 19 |
The first egg has been laid!
I suppose the absence from the nest during the previous few days was due to the birds feeding themselves more than usual in preparation for incubation?
The eggs always seem to be laid early in the morning, this one was at 5:49.
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| Apr 20 |
The second egg has been laid. The absence from the nest during the day is not to feed up for incubating the eggs but so that the female has enough raw materials to make the eggs with.
Incubation will probably start after about 5 eggs have been laid. This is so that all the chicks will hatch around the same time giving them all the same start in life. It's a good job humans don't do this, it would be a staggering cost rather than staggering the cost.
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| Apr 21 |
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This morning at the expected time a third egg had not been laid.
But a little later after some wriggling and fluffing and huffing and puffing,
a third egg was produced. The picture shows her arranging it between the first two.
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| Apr 24 |
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Mrs Blue has roosted in the box every night since she started laying on the 19th.
There has been activity early every morning but we haven't been able to see if the
clutch has grown. There's not much activity during the day, just the occasional visit
to bring more soft stuff. Last year's nest was a lot tidier than this.
This year it was built in such a rush so maybe it wasn't complete by the time
the eggs had to come. Incubation has definitely not started yet.
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Each evening Mrs Blue takes quite a while to settle down for the night. This evening she did permit us a rare glimpse of some eggs as she adjusted her position in the nest. There are at least 4 eggs there and at most 6. We shall just have to wait and see!!
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| Apr 25 |
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It really does look like there are no eggs here. Mrs Blue might well be saying "Now, where did I put them?" She was very busy at dawn, but alas, it was too dark for an egg shot.
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This evening I witnessed a touching little scene. While Mrs Blue was getting ready to snuggle down for the night, Mr. Blue came in with a grub for her. The picture just captures his tail disappearing out through the entrance. Mrs Blue spent quite a little while savouring her supper.
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Settling down for the night is a protracted business. It involves lots of changes in position. Her size and shape alters dramatically. Eventually we are rewarded with a shot of 5 eggs. It may be all the clutch but there could be 7 .
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| Apr 26 |
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Mrs Blue takes great care to keep adding material to the nest. It must be soft and secure for when the chicks hatch. Also I expect it must be comfortable for the long period of incubation which must be imminent. The image on the right shows Mr. Blue offering his mate another grub. I think this is an inducement to start incubating. When it starts he will increasingly bring her morsels to eat.
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Go to next stage. |
