24th May

After nearly two days of watching with no chicks leaving, today saw five of the chicks successfully fledge from the nest.

The cameras were switched on at 04:30am and most of the chicks were already checking out the enterance hole, the BIG wide world and testing their wings. Adam & Eve were visiting with food, but much less often and were trying very hard to tempt the chicks out of the box.

The weather was sunny with high temperatures of around 23C and I thought the chicks would fledge before the box got too warm. It was not until late afternoon that the chicks started to think about fledging from the box. The first chick left the box at 17:53 after being forced out the hole by another chick! The second chick left shortly afterwards at 17:56.

	Chick 1 gets pushed out of the hole and fledges		Chick 2 fledged at 17:56

After around 35 minutes the third chick flew upto the hole and successfully fledged at 18:29. Shortly afterwards the fourth chick left the nest at 18:33.

	Chick 3 fledged at 18:29		Chick 4 fledged at 18:33

At 18:55 the fifth chick fledged leaving just the last three chicks to go. Adam & Eve continued to feed the remaining chicks until 20:50. The last three chicks stayed in the nest and did not fledge today.

I fear that the tiny chick is still not ready to fly and will be left. Will I be correct?

	Chick 5 fledged at 18:55		The three remaining chicks stay in the box

25th May

Yesterday saw five of the eight chicks successfully fledge from the nest. Again I started the cameras up at 04:30am so as not to miss any of the action. The last three chicks successfully fledged the nest today!

The sixth chick left the nestbox at 09:14 followed a minute later by the seventh chick.

	Chick 6 fledged at 09:14		Chick 7 fledged at 09:15

After the sixth and seventh chicks fledged the tiny chick was left on its own. For over an hour it stayed in the box and appeared in no rush to leave. On several occassions it went to sleep and I was concerned that both Adam & Eve would forget about it. I was relived when both Adam & Eve came into the box and fed the chick four times.

Finally after lots of cheeping the tiny chick took the plundge and left the box at 11:28. Eve returned to the nest box a few more times with food, but soon realised the chicks had all gone.

	Chick 8 fledged at 11:28		Eve comes back to an empty box

I watched to see where the last chick landed, in the hope of seeing it in the open. It safely landed in our neighbours headge and I managed to take a few photos of it with our digital camera, before it flew off into the tree tops.

	The last chick to fledge in the headge		The last chick to fledge in the headge

	The last chick to fledge in the headge		The last chick to fledge in the tree

With the last chick gone the nest box fell silent. Gone were the noise of the chicks and it felt rather strange and sad that the long wait for next year had begun. All that remained is the one unhatched egg (number 9).

I have created a video sequence/file of the chicks fledging from the nest. Please visit the Videos page and view the clip called "Fledge". I have also added some animated version of the chicks fledging on the main summary pages.

Hopefully some of the chicks will make it through the next few months and we will have another nest (or even two) in 2010. Good luck little chicks!

In August I will clean out the box and add a new diary entry with some photos of the nest. So for now I will fade away and will leave our website open to everyone who wants to read through our little story of a pair of Blue Tits who built, laid and successfully got eight chicks through. I will be back again in September 2009, when I begin looking out for roosting Blue Tits

Thanks to all our visitors and to everyone who sent in emails & comments. Goodbye for now. Regards Ben.