Thanks for the words of encouragement, Tinks, but no, the parents don't seem anywhere near with 3 people vigilantly watching. That said, one of us swears they saw an adult exit the box - that would be about 2 hours ago and it has not returned!
The young ones are now making quite a noise, and we have seen one get as far as sticking it's beak out the hole, but that's it. Whether it was the music or not we don't know, but they seem to have been devoted parents before this, hence the query if blue tits sometimes resort to "tough love".
We tend to agree in leaving them alone and let nature take it's course: maybe one or two of (up to) thirteen (?) will make it and justify the huge effort... but it's just very sad to think that none may survive and we sit back allowing them to starve to death! We do not have the resources to raise them ourselves and we do not know of any organisation that might want to care for them at this stage.
Whilst typing this, "the beak" has presented itself again and actually showed a face, so our hope is that it's preparing to depart the nest and hopefully set an example for the others. Will keep you posted, hoping we're not hijacking the thread.
