Blue tit activity

We have a nesting box perched in a large cherry tree.

A pair of blue tits have eschewed the box, which is in need of repair, and are excavating a hole under the box, protected by it (we hope). One or the other disappears into the hole and in this photograph, the other is seen peering into the hole, waiting for the return of the one inside.

Notoriously difficult to identify male or female, I think this is the former.

The entire nesting box has appeared  here before