Last night the temperature dropped to -1.1°C, but bright sunshine and the prospect of a warm day has seen the female bring in her first delivery of nesting material at 8.14am.

The day remained bright with a high of 17.3°C.

A little earlier than of late, the male was out of the box at 5.52am, ably assisted by a tail flick and a slight hiss from his partner as he stretched his wings before leaving:

The female was also out a little earlier than usual at 6.33am after wandering about the box and picking up a dropping:

Between 6.33am and 8.13am she had made 18 visits inside, with the first 7 being in quick succession as she cleaned out the box.

She was almost constantly around and again she was very much in the mood for pecking:

The male had also made quite a few appearances, but really he was just checking to see if she was inside and he missed her every time:

At 8.14am he again peered into an empty box, but it wasn't going to stay like that for very long:

He looked round and must have seen her coming, and just as soon as he had flown off she arrived with the first beak full of moss:

The moss was ceremoniously dropped in the corner and shuffled around the floor after which she returned to the hole for a quick peck or two:

Excellent news, and a sign that the pair are moving on to the next phase of their season.

The first delivery is being made here.

The moss went largely unnoticed for the next 30 minutes despite the fact that she had been inside another 7 times. Suddenly it became of interest again and she shuffled around the sides of the box:

The trouble is, as with many other birds, they like to remove what they have bought in. At times last year more was removed than actually came in on the odd day.

So ... would she bring more in, or would it go?

The male popped in at 9.05am and didn't seem to notice any difference to the floor, although he was in a particularly chirpy mood, so maybe he knew something was happening:

Thirty minutes later and it looked as if the new arrival was about to be removed as she picked up the moss and looked towards the hole. Instead she dropped it in favour of a nesting shuffle:

As the morning progressed, no new material was brought in, but she did enjoy herself playing with it and displaying shuffles galore:

At 11.20am this rather odd looking Blue Tit arrived, and guess who was inside playing his old games;

This male is amazing, and given that he clearly saw who was looking through the hole, he still continued to stay in his submissive position.

He/She never came in, but there was plenty of vocalising from the visitor and at times the pitch of the noise distorted through the microphone.

A new visitor is making a noise here.

Incredibly, less than an hour after the above visit, he was back inside crouched on the floor, trying to play host to yet another bird.

It very much looked like the new comer hadn't visited before and looked nervous as it clung onto the hole. The male seemed oblivious that it wasn't his mate, although if anything was different it was the fact that he didn't make many sounds.

After 60 seconds of peering through, the new bird finally made it through the hole. It was maybe then that the male realised things weren't quite right and hit the panic button and made it out through the entrance:

The second new visitor of the day enters here.

Possibly unaware of what had occurred earlier, the regular female was back at the box attacking the floor, along with practicing more moves in the shuffle department:

In a morning that had already seen the beginning of nest building and two foreign visitors, the male was about to complete the set. At 12.42pm he also decided to put in a shuffle for good measure:

The early afternoon continued with many visits by both birds, but predominately by the female.

She displayed a few more shuffles, but no more material arrived and surprisingly nothing was removed either. By 3.30pm you wouldn't really have known that anything had arrived first thing this morning as it lay scattered across the floor:

Things really slowed up after 4.00pm and the box only received a handful of visits and no entries by 6.00pm.

The male has just arrived for a suspicious look at 6.30pm:

It will be very interesting to see how the pair work out their sleeping arrangements over the coming week as the box gradually fills up with more material.

... He may well get thrown out for good!

After all of the pecking over the past week or so, especially by the female as she hangs half out of the entrance, wear marks have begun to show towards the bottom of the hole:

Now that nest building has started, albeit rather slow at first, the Summary section of the site will be updated every day to give a snapshot of how quickly (or slowly) the nest gets built.