On the morning of 16th May at around 10:30 one of the chicks broke ranks with the cluster, and sat in the other corner of the nest box.
At first he was lively, and mother was certainly aware, after some effort to persuade him back to the group, she seems to have neglected him. As of 13:45hrs he had faded, and barely moved for an hour.
|
|
|
|
Then a burst of activity just before 14:00hrs. He got up moved towards the others. Both parents came in. He opened his mouth, just as the others do. He was ignored, and he rolled over onto his back, barely breathing.
 |
 |
 |
We've just discovered, we actually have nine chicks, it's soon to become eight very sadly. Earlier we thought we had eight in total.
 |
 |
 |
The abandoned chick passed away at around 20:00hrs on May 16th, we can now expect to see efforts by the parents to remove it from the box.
 |
 |
 |
Anarchy reigns in the birdbox ! All but two started to venture away from the 'pit' at around 17:00hrs tonight. As of 18:30 most are out of view of the camera, sitting near the entrance.
Still no sign of the dead chick being removed, two of the other chicks were prodding it earlier. It can be seen it's not as well developed the rest, so we assume mother gave up feeding it, (and perhaps moved it from the cluster herself), to concentrate her efforts on the others.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
As of 19:30hrs 17th May, all the chicks had moved to sit under the entrance !
 |
 |
 |
On May 18th, sometime between 20:07 and 20:17hrs the dead chick was probably disposed of. We were not around from 18:30 until 21:00hrs, so have no idea what mother did with the body.
There was no sign of it under or near the birdbox. However it might still be in the box, hidden from view ?
 |
 |
 |
We were concerned about the chick top right hand corner. He had not moved from there since the evening of May 18th.
Mother had fed him a couple of times on the morning of the 19th, but he didn't make it and passed away in the afternoon.
Down to seven now.
Continued on next page....... Page 4
Front Page Page 1 Page 2 Page 4