Early this morning around 7.05am the local Sparrowhawk made a kill right outside one of the windows in the house. It was a slightly noisy affair and once it released its grip on its prey before flying off it was quite evident that another Blue Tit had just been turned into breakfast.

Nature is nature of course and the survival of the fittest will always continue, but we just hope it doesn't take a fancy to either of the birds currently visiting the box. We've never known the one (or two?) Sparrowhawks to be quite so active around here as they are at the moment.

Some statistics say that only about 30% of the Blue Tit population survives its first 12 months. They fall victim to the cold weather, window collisions, illness, natural predators, domestic cats and a host of other unfortunate accidents.

Anyway, the good news is that it didn't catch either of them, and with bright blue skies and an overnight low of -0.5°C the pair were back again.

The high today was 11.2°C and by mid afternoon the blue sky had been replaced by cloud with a few spots of rain thrown in for good measure.

Not as many visits as yesterday, but the visits were longer today.

The first visit to the box was at 7.09am and the male made 3 more trips before he caught the eye of his partner and popped inside for another chance to get her to do the same:

As soon as he was inside she appeared at the hole, although only briefly and he was left inside with no proper purpose in life so quickly shot out in quite a vocal manner:

By 9.00am there had been a total of 26 visits to the entrance and the male had been inside on four occasions, each time hoping to attract her inside.

Just before 9.02am she pitched up to the box and after 20 seconds of bobbing in and out she finally took the plunge and went inside.

As is usual, once she is inside the male feels that he really shouldn't be in her way, so being the perfect gentleman, he quickly obliged and left her to it.

She didn't stay long, only around 12 seconds, but at least he had achieved his goal, and she has now seen inside the box.

Having never seen this activity before from a side angle it was interesting to watch, as in previous years all we have been able to see is the top view:

Excellent stuff, and another box ticked on the Season Checklist.

Hopefully this ritual will be repeated many times over in the coming weeks and once she begins to feel comfortable with the box she will start to visit and enter by herself.

The real question however is, does she like it? We'll only know that over the next few days when maybe she will enter again and then display some nesting shuffles.

You can see the first entry this season by a female here, and as you will hear, quite a loud noise is emitted by the male when she finally enters!

Today has been noticeable with one main change - the woodwork classes have begun in earnest.

Nearly all of the visits this morning involved some quite long and persistent hole pecking sessions, and the male in now pecking from both sides, darting in and out of the hole as he swaps positions:

Although not shown in the video below, he was also adopting some quite odd angles to get to the wood this morning:

And some times he was halfway in and halfway out:

A clip of his handy work can be seen here.

So why do they peck so long and hard at nest box holes?

There is much speculation about this, but they are not trying to enlarge it. The most widely accepted answer is the idea that the wood is being tested, to ensure that it is sound and not rotten so it will serve them well as a temporary family home.

Some people also say they are smoothing off the edges of the hole to make entry and exit easier for themselves, and ultimately their offspring ... of course for the chicks, their use of the entrance is a one-way trip!

At the height of the feeding frenzy just before the chicks are due to fledge, wings on parents have been measured and shown to have been reduced in length by anything up to quarter of an inch. The loss of length being attributable to darting in and out of the hole some hundreds of times a day.

Another interesting observation that can be seen from the side angle camera is the male and his crown. He can get quite excited, or quite concerned at times, and if you didn't know better you could assume he was wearing some sort of flat cap hat:

There were 126 visits to the box and 17 entries by the male along with the one, but important entry by the female. The last recorded visit was at 2.58pm.

And finally, a few shots from the feeders this morning when the Blue Tits were enjoying some sunshine:

Rain is forecast for most of tomorrow, so we'll see how they take to the damp conditions.