Big brother in the Hawfinch wood

Note the weirdly shaped egg on the right.

This year's Hawfinch nesting season is well underway and we are once again attempting to install nest cameras to assist with an RSPB research project. So far Dave has managed to locate seven Hawfinch nests and I've installed cameras on three of them. We are hoping to do one of the others but the remaining two are just too high and the branches too thin for a heavyweight like myself!

Managed to throw my iPhone 60ft out of the top of the tree just after taking this photo. It twanged alarmingly off the ladder below and shot off into the undergrowth where it took a while to find but amazingly no damage is apparent! That has to be some sort of a recommendation  (cheques payable to A. V. Cross please Apple!)

The search continues and we may yet get to use all of the nine cameras available but with every day the leaf cover increases and nest finding gets that bit trickier.

First impressions are of a very early season and I got a bit of a shock when the first nest I climbed to this morning had 4 recently hatched chicks and an egg!!