Another Spring like day with lots of sunshine and a high of 13.1°C making it the warmest day since 12th January.

Today has seen some very interesting activity inside the box, with the first displays by a female of nesting shuffles. However, it isn't quite as straightforward as that, because two different females displayed nesting shuffles within 70 minutes of each other this morning!

The day started at 7.09am and by 8.02am there had been 14 visits when this male arrived to try and entice a female inside:

His partner, on the other side of the wall looked like this:

After around 90 seconds she entered the box, emitted a loud noise and her mate got quickly out of the box:

Once inside she took time to look around, just as slowly as the other female did yesterday:

She had been inside about 20 seconds when the microphones picked up the noise of another bird landing on the box. The bird hadn't yet appeared in the outside camera view, but she too heard the landing.

Within 2 seconds the bird, presumably another male, was looking through the hole right at her, and she wasn't at all happy. With wings splayed and an angry look on her face, the outside visitor quickly fled:

The visitor which had upset her looked like this:

Seemingly unruffled by her encounter with a window shopper, she carried on inspecting the interior.

Just under 2 minutes later whilst she was up at the hole pecking here, and looking there ... another bird she didn't want to encounter arrived at the entrance.

This time she was silent, and lunged towards the intruder with open beak:

Naturally the bird on the outside flew off pretty quickly, but it does interest us how each Blue Tit gets to know another, or do they?

Some 25 seconds after the altercation above, she was still inside and was checking out the glass wall. At the same time the bird which she took issue with landed on the outside, gave 2 loud chirps and flew off again.

The really interesting thing about this was that she didn't flinch a muscle:

She didn't stay much longer, and flew the box.

Four more visits saw the 'regular' female with the eye mark spending time pecking at the hole, and then entering without a male on hand to tempt her:

She too was quiet as she moved around the box, but one of the corners caught her eye and the briefest of wing flaps, or possibly the first minor nesting shuffle of the season was recorded:

Over the next half hour there were another 12 assorted visits where she entered the box twice and her man once.

The second of her entries lasted 10 minutes, with most of the time being spent pecking at the hole.

Fifty minutes later and another bird was at the door, looking very similar to the female who arrived at 8.03am. She briefly look through the opening, went straight in and promptly pecked the floor:

Two minutes later and our waiting was over. She moved from one corner of the box to the other displaying the first proper signs of real interest this season - the nesting shuffles had begun !

We have always assumed that these shuffles were carried out with the bird almost flat against the floor. The pictures below show that this isn't the case, and that whilst she was propelling herself along, her feet were mostly in contact all the time:

Another 23 visits ensued and at 10.17am our old friend with the eye mark was back again, getting stuck into the woodwork:

She entered, pecked the glass and moved over to the back left corner:

Then, as earlier, she displayed the smallest of shuffles:

She was back again 6 minutes later when this time she looked as if she was just about to launch into a shuffle, but instead she pecked at the floor:

By this point there had been 75 visits and 18 entries.

It was impossible to work out how many of these were by a female, given the rather confusing visiting pattern of the two pairs. We might even suggest that a third pair, or at least one bird from another pair might also have been visiting the outside today.

All this activity looked set to continue, with another 21 visits, but just as sudden as yesterday, they ceased to visit and stopped play at 11.56am.

A compilation video of the larger shuffle from both camera angles is here.

The coming days and weeks will prove a very interesting time. Many of the birds in the garden are beginning to raise their calls, and a Spring feeling is entering the air.

Robins, Magpies and Great Tits have been seen gathering nesting material, so the Blue Tits will not be far behind them.

How the nest box will work out is anybody's guess at this stage, and there may be a few more strong words to be had between competing pairs.