there were some voices of a crested tit and then a bit later a big tit near the nest but they didn't come in sight.
i checked yeaterday the very first days of 2009 season from the Pontu pictures. two years ago the parents were in the nest already two hours after the tunr-on of the camera which was at 14.35 on March 5th.
then i was able to find evidence of three matings. some were mentioned in the forum notes. once they were caught in action in a Pontu picture. that is a small miracle actually because the mating itself takes no more than about 15 seconds.
the matings i found were on March 6th at 7.06, on March 7th at 8.40 and on March 8th at 10.20. naturally there must have been more, but they may have not been seen or have not been mentioned.
i noticed that members were shy in writing about this behaviour and prefered to use chaste euphemisms to report this.
i don't think that is necessary because this behaviour is perfectly natural (and i think most of us are old enough for this). if one doesn't like to write 'mate' or 'mating' one can write the phrase 'make love' instead.
then i found the first occurrence of an egg in a Pontu picture which was taken on March 11th at 6.57.
on March 10th there was a three-hour-long period in the morning when no-one was in or at the nest. Linda came at 10.53, 8 minutes after Sulev, who left at 11.08. then Linda stayed in the nest all day drooping and drowsing, and she stayed in the nest when the camera turned of at 18.11. in the afternoon she was harassed by the strange intruder eagle for more than an hour. she may have laid the first egg already on March 10th but it wasn't seen.
from March 12th onwards a parent was present in the nest continuously, even though on that day Linda wasn't really lying in the nest all the time. instead she was drooping on the rim of the nest for more than three hours. Sulev was keeping her company, sitting on a branch by the nest for two hours. in the evening Linda was again drooping in the nest, looking somewhat uncomfortable...
in the next days either parent was incubating continuously. the longest observed break between changes was 4 minutes. there was one camera failure on March 26th at 8.01 - 12.18.
the hatched chick was first seen on April 16th at 11.42. that was day number 37 when March 11th is marked day 1. all this is well in accordance with the average incubation time of 38 days when the uncertainties are taken into consideration.