"Micro" made it

After twenty-four hours of agony accompanied by Kath providing copious quantities of worms and porridge, Micro fledged to join his brothers and sisters in the big wide world. Possible video to follow - this is being posted from Spain!

Nine eggs, seven hatched, six grew, six fledged. Result!

Venturing forth into the big wide world

So it has happened...the nest box almost emptied in an afternoon of excitement.

Tufty was first, as predicted long ago...

A bit of a gap before number two plucked up courage, very much encouraged by the parent refusing to hand the grub over...

And then a very long video of numbers three, four and five making a bid for freedom...

Lara managed to capture one of these three leaving - this is iPhone footage, so excuse the quality, but right near the end of the clip someone flies from the nest box on the right to the bush on the left. Great work, even if the camerawoman was trembling with excitement!

Here's still from the video with a head and shoulders sticking out...

Which just leaves "Micro", spending the night alone in the now spacious box. He made a big effort to fly to the exit hole, but just isn't strong enough yet - there was almost two days between the first and last eggs hatching. Both parents have been in to feed him this evening, and we have stepped up the live food again to make it easy for them, so we are hopeful he will gain the necessary strength. Stay tuned...

Peeking outside

Today Tufty got up to the entrance hole and had a peek outside. They will surely start fledging very, very soon!

Catch-up part iii - ready to leave soon?

2nd June, we've still got six healthy chicks, including a huge one the girls have called "Tufty". A family of Great Tits have fledged their chicks over the weekend, and judging by the footage here, our Blue Tits cannot be far behind..

Catch-up part ii - growing fast

Some footage from a few days later, 31st May. The weather has been pretty miserable, and the parents were struggling to feed the chicks. We have therefore bought tons of waxworms, and have been trying to devise clever ways of restricting them to the small birds, i.e. not Magpies! Here's some action of small (but growing) birds struggling to eat juicy morsels!

This was also the first day that the mother didn't roost in the box since the end of March. She's been squeezed out by her expanding family!

Catch-up part i - six hungry chicks

Sorry for the radio silence. Been very busy, not least sourcing waxworms from Pets at Home down the A3 (apologies to all the New Malden based lizards who have had to stick to more mundane food whilst my brood ate their treats).

Firstly, a clip from the 25th May. Here you can see the sun shining (a rare event in these characters lives so far), and both parents are finding bugs from the garden. Also, if you watch to the end, you see one of the chicks present their rear to the adult to have a faecal sac removed. Enjoy...

Initially there were seven chicks (and two unhatched eggs). The smallest chick lasted about three days, but we didn't see it removed. The other six all seem to be doing well.

Feeding time

A lazy, unedited video of the action today. Both birds doing a terrific job of feeding the seven chicks. Two unhatched eggs can be glimpsed under the hatchlings - I suspect these won't make it now the mother is busy hunting for caterpillars...