Still 5 Eggs

It seems the Great Tit clutch is finished at 5 eggs in our camera nestbox, as there wasn't another egg laid today. I think the female had already skipped a day at some point, so 5 looks like the final number. 

This seems unusually low to me, but a look online suggested that somewhere between 5 and 12 eggs are normal, so it seems we're just at the bottom end of this scale. I also know that nests in gardens or more urban areas in general tend to contain less eggs. Our Blue Tit nest in 2011 contained 7 eggs and this was a little lower than average too I think. I suppose it gives the parents a better chance of raising the chicks when they hatch, as there will be less mouths to feed. 

I was at home today briefly, as I needed to get a couple of things done back home, so I was able to watch the nest for much of the day. Our female Great Tit seems to be incubating the eggs properly now, and is on the nest around 70% of the time during the day, and then obviously all night when she is roosting. She seems to fidget around rather a lot, not looking comfortable for too long, just as our Blue Tit female did a couple of years ago. Watch in 480p if you can :)

Later on in the day I decided to try and record the Great Tit going into the nestbox from outside in the garden. So I left my capture program recording the inside of the nestbox while I set up my camera on a tripod outside and started recording on that. I hadn't actually got a proper view of the Great Tits going into the box before I recorded this video, and I hadn't quite realised how much of a squeeze it is for them to get through the hole. The metal protector on the front of the box has a 28mm hole, which is supposed to be suitable for Great Tits, but it seems a slightly larger hole might be better. 

Anyway, the video I managed is below. Watch in 720p if you can :) 



One thing I haven't seen yet is the male feeding the female whilst she's on the nest. As you can see in the video above, the female calls for him quite a bit, but he doesn't come in to feed her. He does however visit the garden quite a lot, and it might be that he has fed her outside the nest. 

I'm back at uni now this evening, so I'll be sent any photos/videos via dropbox over the next few days again. Anyway, thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend :)