Monday May 8th Three of the seven eggs have hatched at some point during the day. No photos yet but they're small and pink. Tuesday May 9th There looked to be four chicks in the nest first thing this morning. Both parents were visiting with food, but the female was still sitting on them for long periods at a time. This evening there were clearly six baby birds and one unhatched egg, so if the egg is still there tomorrow I don't think it'll hatch at all. Managed a few pics this morning before work..... Wednesday May 10th This morning I couldn't count the chicks as the female was sat on them whilst I was there, but as luck would have it, at five past eight she pulled half an egg-shell out of the nest-cup, ate it and sat back down again (photo 0576) - I suspect it was the seventh egg hatching. This evening there did appear to be a smaller chick in amongst the wriggling pink and yellow mass! The older chicks are now beginning to give very faint calls - for the first day or two they are inaudible. Thursday May 11th Still all present and correct this morning - the older chicks are two or three times bigger than they were on Monday so I'm beginning to be able to get some better pics of them now. The seventh bird that appeared to hatch yesterday can just be seen in the top left of img 0609 - just about the only accurate way to count them is by a photo, so I can tell that at least six of them are OK from this pic. The female seems to be spending a lot of time poking around in the nest cup - presumably making it bigger so there'll still be room for the rapidly expanding chicks. I've gradually introduced a little slave flash in the last few days; as a result the shots of the chicks are much better lit without that shadow caused by the single gun. Friday May 12th Again, difficult to tell exactly how many chicks are still there, but there are still at least six. The difference in size between the oldest and youngest birds is quite noticeable in photo 0647 - perhaps the small bird is the one that hatched on Wednesday? There's been a few showers today, so the glass in the side of the box has got quite messy as the damp adult birds rub up against it - I'll probably change it over the weekend. Saturday May 13th Definitely still seven chicks in the nest - they can all be seen in image 0709. Comparing the photos to those taken a couple of days ago the speed of the chicks' development is quite remarkable - on photo 0731 you can clearly see little eyelids beginning to appear, as well as the ear cavities. The female spends a lot of time making the nest cup bigger as the chicks grow; as the edges get higher and wider it's beginning to look like they're sat in a little crater! I changed the glass this morning - no more out-of-focus bits of crap, which were caused by the female as she brushed up against the glass with her tail. Without even seeing any plumage detail on the birds, you can tell the female as she always gives a sparrow-like chattering call to the chicks when she enters the box; it's this that prompts the chicks to start begging. Strangely, the female always goes to the close side of the nest (the glass side) and the male always feeds the young from the far corner, which is why nearly all of the shots I have of the chicks being fed are with the male bird. Sunday May 14th Life goes on in the Blue Tit house - I think all the chicks are still fine, although I only ever managed to photograph six in one image. The biggest ones are quite well developed now; on image 0795 you can clearly see all the secondaries in pin with all the greater coverts coming through above them. Compare this older bird with the baby of the bunch being fed in the last image (0815) - there's no head feathers developing at all yet on that one. If they survive then they should have left the nest by the time the Bank Holiday weekend is over, so there's a fair bit of growing to be done yet. As the chicks grow I can see why Mrs BT spends so much time making the nest cup deeper and the edges higher; this afternoon one of the chicks tried to escape as its mum was feeding the others (img 0796). It fell back into the nest with the others but just after I took the picture I looked through the camera and just caught it clambering around the outside of the nest like some ugly wingless bat! I spent some time with a macro lens taking close-ups of the chicks this afternoon, and also took some more shots of them being fed by the male. To go to week three, click here