Five become Three ...

Well, following yesterday's lack of action, today brought the sad demise of two further chicks ... There were four this morning, but by this evening only three remained. I thought it looked as if all remaining five had a good chance of making it ... Just shows what I know !! 

So, we are left with just the three, still an over 30% success rate if they all fledge, which isn't too bad.

Here we see the remaining siblings, two big brothers and a little sister all lined up nicely at dinner time :

Here we can see Gus trying to entice the youngsters to feed from the hole, a sure sign that fledging day is close ... Having failed, Gus goes in to give them their supper. However, shortly afterwards, I could here a lot of calling from outside the nestbox, and there were both Gus & Glo calling out to their brood. 

It certainly caused a reaction inside, and here we see 'Get me out Graham', having a couple of quick peeks at the big outside world, closely watched by 'Go for it Gary', they obviously have plans to go clubbing at the weekend! whilst 'Give me space Grace' looks like she is staying till the Bank Holiday and is wishing they would just go and leave her in peace !!

Plenty of preening and wing flapping, Graham and Gary look nearly as big as their parents, so not long now till they venture out ...