So for anyone wondering she did eventually abandon the chick.
She started the day well bringing 4-5 caterpillars for him to eat.
For some reason she was unable to actually feed them to the chick. I think partly this was because he was moving around a lot on order to get her attention and secure the food but she also looked like she had a problem with coordination. Each time she tried to feed him she gave up and ate it herself.
She then left him alone in the nest for 2.5 hours.
This is when I turned off the feed as it seemed she was abandoning the chick and at that point I didn't just want to livestream the starvation of a chick if there was no real hope of her coming back to the rescue.
Obviously this was a very long time and by far the longest period that she has been out for since she built the nest.
She did come back to briefly sit on him after that. Then she left again and was away for a few more hours. The second time that she returned she seemed disoriented, confused, uninterested in the chick. Potentially even surprised that the chick was there.
Seeing him left alone and abandoned was by far the most upsetting part of this processes. The deaths of the other chicks and absence of the male had all been very sad in their own right. But seeing the oldest, strongest and biggest chick left in the nest to die alone was very upsetting.
With the other chicks she tried her best and it wasn't good enough. With this one she gave up or was otherwise incapable of caring for him. So he was let down and left to die through no fault of his own.
The chick made it more or less 24 hours without food and with very little assistance from her maybe partly due to temperatures in that part of the garden of 25 degrees this afternoon. But sadly he has now died.
Whilst there will be some people who think that we should have rescued it and others that think we should have left it alone I can assure you that we explored every avenue. We spent all afternoon seeing what could be done but unfortunately we were unable to find a solution that would give the chick the shot at life it deserved. Especially not as a wild bird which is how it should be.
We've watched the two parent bluetits visit this camera box since November so it's very sad and disappointing to see it end this way.
To think that we went from two parents doing their jobs perfectly and 7 eggs to a situation where all of the chicks and probably both parents have died is heartbreaking.
But as we keep saying. That is nature and nature can be very harsh.
I hope that you found the streams interesting / insightful / educational. Hopefully at some point you found them enjoyable.
As sad as this is I suppose it's an insight in to what is going on all around us in hedges, trees, bushes. It's quite natural but it happens out of sight.