Well it would appear that she still wasn't quite ready for incubation this morning, but this afternoon things have definitely started cooking.

The male hasn't taken up the offer of a temporary pad next door, although he did venture inside yesterday morning and have a quick 5 second look about.

The 7th egg was laid this morning, and whilst clicks could be heard from quite early on from 5.10am onwards, they had stopped at 5.35am and she rested for just under 7 minutes before delving into the cup to check what was below:

Once again she seemed fairly comfortable with laying an egg, and just as yesterday she moved around the cup and pulled at nesting material as she went through the motions.

The close view camera offers a different perspective on things, and something we have wanted to mention for a while is now possible to capture. The picture below shows her about 7 minutes into her labour, and she looks asleep. However in reality she is clicking away in time with her breathing.

This video shows how fast her heart beats were, and they are about 128 beats per minute. The whole of her labour cycle seemed to run at this pace, and there wasn't a noticeable increase in the click rate as has been the case on other mornings. (Turn your speakers up to hear the clicks).

She didn't leave the nest until 7.31am, which is late, so first thing it looked as if incubation had started.

During that time she made good use of the male and his mobile delivery service, and he kept himself busy for a while. Only a while mind you, he does need to go off and do other 'male' things!

His first was at 5.44am and between then and 6.30am he made 16 feeds and then forgot about her.

She only got one more at 7.23am which was a particularly long one and showed some good dialogue between the pair.

The box lay empty for just over an hour before she brought some more material in and then left again - but what about warming those eggs?

This morning she looked reluctant to settle down and start incubating full time and whilst she was away the male looked ready to feed the eggs again:

After a few more breaks at 2.20pm she revealed what suspiciously looks like 7 eggs:

At long last after a morning of hesitation, and possibly taking time to to mentally prepare herself for the quiet days ahead, she had finally succumbed to the inevitable, serious incubation has started ...

This is her pattern up until 6.00pm today:

*As the table shows, from 1.26pm onwards she spent more time in, than out.

Her comfort break at 3.12pm saw the best view yet, a perfect pattern of the eggs:

Throughout the afternoon the male called by to drop off food and as usual sometimes she accepted it, and at other times she had no idea he called in to see her.

A few pictures from the pair this afternoon:

The male looks confused again, and another meal goes wasted here.

The female accepts food through the serving hatch, and the male is forced to wiggle out here.

So the 15th tick box on the  20 Point Season Checklist has been completed, now there's only 5 left to complete ...

And finally, as we were about to upload this diary entry, the male has just fed the female through the hole again, and once more she enjoyed a rather large catch - and ate it right by the glass wall:

Yummy !

Let's hope that incubation passes without any dramas, although the male might have one or two during the period! Good luck to them both.

Egg number 8 tomorrow ?