Last night saw the male bring quite a few food deliveries in for the female, and his last visit before this morning was at 7.45pm.

His timing was slightly better this morning, and he let the female lay her egg before he popped in with a a few treats.

After the slow coming egg of yesterday, the fifth was incredibly fast, and looked as if labour only lasted a minute. Well, we say 'looked' but really we have to go by the clicking sounds to work out when it occurs.

Also, a feather was neatly in the way today, so a good view wasn't possible.

The first clicks were heard at 5:43:28 and the last at 5:44:09, that's just 41 seconds!

She stayed motionless in the cup, resting for another 2 minutes and then it was head up, and she was preening herself once more:

The male could be heard outside and within 2 minutes he arrived, and made 3 food deliveries over a 7 minute period:

She didn't stay much longer inside the box and looked as if she might be in a hurry. So much so that she forgot the cover the eggs, and what looks like five came into view:

The sunlight was very bright this morning, and was casting reflections on the glass wall when she returned at 6.36am with a little delivery to cover the eggs:

Leaving the nest for 1.5hrs saw her return with more, and then again at 8.39am. Hole pecking is back, and on the infrequent visits she makes at present quite often finds time to do so on the way out:

You can't blame her for spending as little time as possible in the nest at present. When she starts incubating the eggs it almost becomes her self-made prison for nearly 2 weeks.

Another hour passed as she sped through the hole with a few more strands:

And conspicuous by his absence for 4 hours, the male neatly missed her again:

... and again ...

... and again ...

Just before lunchtime she returned with a few strands of what looked like cat or dog fur, but the visit was really just a check-up to make sure everything was alright inside the box:

The female is checking and bouncing around here.

And the same was done twice again a little later:

At 2.51pm she came inside for about 8 minutes and spent a long time sitting in the cup checking and inspecting things.

She hasn't spent so much time in there during an afternoon before, and as she sat in the cup we half wondered if she was beginning to think about incubation. Last year it started early in the afternoon on the 9th May.

An hour later and she returned, putting her head straight down into the nest cup, moved the top feathers out of the way with her body and feet and snuggles down.

A few minutes later and she got fed:

The male fed her again 5 minutes later and again after that.

She continued to just sit there, moving her body around and checking the eggs for nearly 30 minutes before moving up to the hole and shouting for food.

But look what she showed the camera when she moved out of the nest:

Five eggs!

The male didn't respond, so she left ... but what was going on here?

Were these visits precursors to egg incubation?

If she lays 6 eggs as the female in 2005, incubation could start tomorrow. However, Blue Tits (as with many other birds) can begin incubation on the penultimate day, so we'll have watch out for that and see if an egg is laid the day after she starts.

Last year of course saw 10 eggs, and if 10 is the number again this year, then incubation could start on Saturday or Sunday.

Strange ... but it is entirely possible that she may start full-time incubation tomorrow.

This video shows her moving out of the nest and calling for the male. Have a good look, because we're not convinced that there are just five in there ... are there six?

The question has also been posted on the forum if you want to participate.

She has returned at 6.25pm which is very early for her, and again she is in the nest cup and looking very comfortable:

She'll probably leave again tonight, but tomorrow could be an interesting day ...

As it now looks like the male won't be spending any more nights in the box with his mate, and we have wondered where he spends his nights, we are trying an experiment ...

A friend has kindly lent us their camera box which hasn't had any takers this year and earlier this morning it was put up beside the main camera box.

It will be interesting to see if he uses it as a roost.

He has checked it out already, as the right-hand picture shows. He had just made a failed food delivery at 5.49pm, and then seconds later a bird with something in its beak was spotted:

Let's hope he doesn't get too confused and start delivering there all the time!