April 20th 2011
This morning is another lovely sunny morning in Dublin and the female is spending long periods of time sitting on the eggs. It appears that she may have started to incubate them. It is difficult to know if she has laid a seventh egg this morning…we'll just have to watch for a moment when she leaves the nest. You will also notice that she is actively pulling pieces of the nesting lining around her which is also an indicator that she may have started the incubation process. It may take two weeks for the eggs to hatch so we may see chicks emerge during the first week of May.

April 19th 2011
There are now six eggs in the nest and the female is spending long periods of time away from the nest. She needs to maintain her body weight and condition in preparation for the next five to six busy weeks ahead. She has continued to maintain the nest, adding new lining and readjusting the lining. This is all in preparation for the incubation period which will start as soon as the last egg is laid.

April 18th 2011
She has laid five eggs at this stage. Blue Tits can lay as many as 13 eggs but on average she will lay 7-10. Last year, our pair had seven eggs and successfully raised all seven chicks.

April 15th 2011
We have gone live today with our webcam and the female has laid two eggs at this stage. The nest in perfectly lined with feathers and this will keep the eggs safe and warm when she is away. Each egg weighs as much as 10% of her body weight, so the female is spending long periods of time feeding to maintain her fitness and body weight. It requires great effort to produce a new egg each and every day.

April 14th 2011
Our Blue Tit female has laid her first egg in the nest…the season is now truly under way. Over the coming days she will lay one egg each day and will not start incubating those eggs until the very last egg is laid. At this stage we can only guess how many eggs she might lay but let us all hope for a successful breeding season ahead.