On the evening of 19th May, both parents attempted to remove, without success the second dead chick.
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We think we should have seven chicks remaining, but so far we can only count six. It's difficult to tell though.
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Around 09:00hrs on May 21st, the second dead chick was removed from the box. We found it at 11:30 dropped on our patio, about 3 metres away from the birdbox, at 18:20hrs a magpie swooped down, and took the body away.
Overnight 21/22nd May, was the first time that mother didn't spend the night in the birdbox.
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We're really not sure we have seven chicks at all, it looks as if there are only five left in the box. Perhaps another two have perished, and their bodies are out of view of the camera. There is also another not developing as fast as the others, he tends to sulk in the pit, as seen first left below.
There's a blind spot along the bottom edge, near the hole. We have only ever seen a maximum of five in recent days
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They're certainly getting close to going ! On the 23/24th one didn't want to sleep with the others, by morning they're hanging around by the entrance again.
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All snuggled up together on 24/25th May
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Drama overnight 26/27th, one of the chicks has died, bottom right hand corner. It's the less well developed one we identified earlier
The others have been poking their heads out of the hole regularly, at 09:30 one of the chicks came right out of the box, and stood on the perch, with Mum feeding him there. It was pouring with rain at the time.
At 11:44hrs there was a sudden flurry of activity, one after another all four left the box, and disappeared into the nearby Silver Birch tree. All had gone by 11:45. As of 12:00hrs we could hear them chirping away in the tree.
We wish them well, and good luck.
Sadly all that was left was the chick that died last night. So out of nine hatchings, only four made it this year. We can account for three deaths, as catalogued here, but the other two are a mystery. On May 29th we opened up the box. No sign of them, so Mum and/or Dad must have removed the bodies without us noticing. We carefully placed the last dead chick in the corner of our garden, by morning the body had gone, food for something else.
Many thanks for watching this year, see you back in 2008.
Mark and Nicky
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Final Update May 30th