Day 47 - Tuesday 26th May 2015

Day 46 - Monday 25th May 2015

Nearly ready to leave the box, but hopefully they will stay another day.

Plenty of Magpies on the prowl as there are a lot of young fledgelings in the garden.

A Sparrowhawk was seen early this evening, so best stay tucked up inside the nest box boys.

Day 45 - Sunday 24th May 2015

Another beautiful day here in South East London, and Fred and chicks have been busy since 0500 this morning.  Fred seems remarkably strong despite the pressure he has been under since losing Freda.

The last couple of days he has displayed an aggressive streak at the feeding stations, chasing off Goldfinches and Sparrows if they were on the feeders he wanted to visit.  The fatherly instinct in him has really come to the fore, so once the chicks leave the box we're confident he will be doing his utmost to look after them.

More later....

Day 44 - Saturday 23rd May 2015

There's lots of wing stretching and moving about in the nest box this morning, which is a sure sign that the chicks are nearly ready to leave the box.

Fred has been in and out since 5.20 this morning, his usual time and everybody is doing fine.

Lots of garden activity today, with the Robins and Blackbirds taking away more mealworms, we think they both have second broods.

Fred and the chicks have another good day.

Day 43 - Friday 22nd May 2015

Fred has managed another great day today, and the chicks are all beginning to spread their wings literally.

Lots of movement in the nest box, and one of the chicks is gingerly making his way towards the entrance hole.

Proud Father

Day 42 - Thursday 21st May 2015

For some reason the chicks decided to move out of sight of the camera late today, and it was difficult to see what was happening. Perhaps I should pay them a bit more to stay in focus.

It looked for some time as though there were only two chicks but, at 8 o'clock tonight all three of them appeared on camera. Phew!  We don't really want anything going wrong having come so far with only one parent.  They are certainly turning into three little characters.

Fred is still looking very strong, having started work just after 5am this morning, and is still going strong as I type this at 20.00

I will try and get an outside camera rigged up over the weekend and see if we can record them leaving the box from the outside.

Day 41 - Wednesday 20th May 2015

Another early start for Fred.  It's nice and sunny here in the South East and we live to fight another day.

Go Fred and the chicks!

Its just gone 7pm and it's nice and sunny. Fred has been busy all day long feeding the last 3 chicks.  Their eyes are now open eagerly await Fred's arrival with food.  

There's some wing stretching and flapping going on, which all indicates that there's only about 6 or 7 days left before they will want to venture out into the big wide world.  
 

All together now!