4 weeks old!

I can't believe the chicks are 4 weeks old and they have grown up so much since the 3rd week!
I couldn't find a shot with a chick in quite the right place, but I think the shot I chose in the end illustrate how much the wing feathers have come in just 7 days:

Day 23: aquatic adventures

Towards the end of the morning, Dad came to feed the chicks, though he looks a bit daunted by the prospect in this shot:

Then, one chick started wandering:

Then another:

What they didn't realise was that it was going to rain, and quite hard, and they took refuge in a corner to shelter from the rain:

Photo by Dave Morrison

One of the chicks braved the rain and came back to the nestbox about half an hour later, looking a bit bedraggled:

2pm, and the second chick was still in the corner, but enjoying a spell of sunshine:

It took food to finally drag it back to the box:

However, as soon as this one was back, another one decided to go and have fun in the puddle:

After 10 minutes, it decided to come and join Mum and the others back in the box, and made a rather undignified re-entry:

Anyone else seen this kind of behaviour before?

Day 22: 3 weeks old

Hot on the heels of the 2 weeks comparison montage, I give you the 3 weeks one:

The increase in size since the previous week is not that obvious in this shot, but the change in posture is, and there is some feathering around the face.

The trio, when not asleep, are a lot more mobile and adventurous. For the first time, at the beginning of this afternoon, they all went out exploring outside the nest box. Only one had done it sofar, for about 2 minutes yesterday evening.