2018 Birch log blue tits, Nest building, egg laying and incubation days 1-13

13 days in from the start of blue tit nest building, we're up to 8 eggs.  Three eggs were laid on day 6 (ouch) then approximately one egg per day.  She started incubating in the last couple of days.

Video and images captured using PikrellCam on a RaspberryPi Zero W.  This box's build is described here.

This is a slide show of nest building and egg laying using a mixture of IR and visible light.  The pinkish cast on the visible light is due to the lack on an IR-cut filter on the camera... I'll add one for next year.

Having looked at other blue tits nests, it seems that green tennis ball fluff is quite the 'in thing'.  In this one is also rabbit hair, sheep wool, straw, moss and feathers from my neighbour's chickens...

1st eggs laid on day 6

Day 9, egg in the sunshine, infra-red illuminated

Day 13, 8 eggs, incubating most of the time now

Some video clips

Female being fed on the nest while laying (not incubating in earnest yet)

This one with the lights on

All seems to be going well, other what is probably a tick above her right eye.  Goes with the territory in these parts...

Part 2 of this series is here, unfortunately it doesn't end well.... and the tick does not help...