Day 20: D Day - Part 1

8am and they're all still at home.

Meg comes in to feed her brood and it's all a bit hectic. From 8am until 10am there were many visits to the entrance hole by the chicks but none of them plucked up the courage to make that leap...

At 10:39am chick number one decides it's time to take the plunge and jumps up to the hole. Unfortunately, I can only show pictures of their tails at this point!

He eventually left the box at 10:41. Seven minutes passed before I was able to get a picture of them all calm - and all in the same shot! One down, three to go.

At 12:29 Chick number two leaves so quickly that it's just a blur - and barely registers on the camera. We do get a clearer shot of the reaction, though.

"That leaves just me and you"

Two down, two to go. Meg vanishes for a long time now - presumably she's with her fledglings in the big wide world. It's now up to Ted to tempt the last two out.

Up goes chick number 3...

Ah, but she wasn't ready! They're also spending a lot of time in this corner - which makes it awfully hard to get pictures of them. But that's my fault for having the camera on the front wall of the box...

Ted is making visit after visit - but he just can't tempt them out. Little bits of food are coming in but not too much. Some food comes no further than the entrance hole.

Right. Sleepy decides it's all just too much - and so has an afternoon kip.

Half an hour later and Sleepy has barely moved. Time to get a move on!

Ted's still in and out of the nest like the clappers. He's also calling to them a lot from the washing line in the garden. But they just won't budge!

Two's company.

Time for another sleep!

Heading towards 3pm now... and there's not much sign of them fledging...

Ted's back - and he's wet. It's not raining at the moment, so he must have been for another bath.

Oh, this look promising. Is this it? Time for chick number 3 to go?

Nope! He was just exercising his wings. Now he's having a bite to eat.

While No. 2 and No. 3 are still in the box, one of the other chicks is being fed on the back lawn by Meg.

Talking of Meg - she's back at the nest box now. Maybe she can tempt them out...

Not yet, she can't! It's gone 5pm now... perhaps they're hanging around for another day?


Ted pays a food-less visit.

It looks like they just aren't ready.

Meg's turn this time - she brings some food with her, though.

And still they are here at 8:15pm!

I'm guessing they'll stay now until tomorrow...