Tom paid 2 visits to the nest ledge today.
He spent around 5 minutes during the morning visit, here is a clip of most of it:
In the afternoon, he was hoping Charlie would join him for a display, here is is popping his head out of the box looking at her at the other end of the ledge:
The two oldest chicks are getting to the age where they can thermoregulate and so the chicks may be left on their own for longer periods from now on. Tom hasn’t tried brooding them at all today. And they were left alone for half an hour early afternoon.
Tom came in early and waited for eight minutes before Azina moved on but it doesn’t look like they did much chatting this time.
The chicks had six feeds today, some lasting quite long. On the menu only pigeon today.
The youngest chick missed out on the second feed. I guess it wasn’t hungry. It caught up at the next one and got a private feed for a while by again separating itself from its siblings. It joined them back by itself this time.
Tom spent a fair bit of time perched by the ledge today.
Shots for today:
Today is Chick #1’s 3 weeks birthday and to celebrate it went on a little trip. That’s one day earlier than Indy last year and three days earlier than Walnut in 2021.
Tom and Azina spent a lot of time perched by the side of the ledge today, either separately or together. In the morning Azina spent a lot of time disturbing the chicks’ sleep by pottering in the nest box for nothing in particular.
Again the chicks were fed to the brim an endless supply of pigeons. The last meal lasted 40 minutes with the first 10 minutes done by Tom. They fell in a food coma immediately.
As you can see on its excursion clip Chick #1 is now very steady on its feet and will now stand during feeds. Chick #2 is still quite reluctant.
Short clip of the chicks playing.
Shots for today:
Just two video clips today.
Exchange on the porch then Azina feels the need to preen a little before incubating.
A bit of time with Tom as he incubates and makes himself comfortable on the eggs.
I was out for most of the day but took my tablet to do some spot checks (which turned out easier said than done, but it worked which was the main thing). Azina waited until one minute before I was due to leave to finally get up and reveal that there were still two eggs and two chicks.
A check early afternoon gave me a hint that there may be a third chick but I lost signal and it’s not until later in the afternoon that I was finally able to confirm it and put the word out.
If you look closely at the shot above, taken at 11am, it looks like pipping on the egg on the left.
At 11:46, Azina turns and walks on the chick that’s just hatched. It’s still curled up from being in the egg! That is quite a rough start…
An hour later Azina gives us another glimpse. The chick has dried up a little.
Then, two and a half hours after it’s hatched, we get to see a fully fluffy chick at the second feed of the day. It’s the one at the back. It doesn’t get fed then but that is not a problem, freshly hatched Peregrine chicks usually don’t eat for many hours.
It didn’t have to wait too long in the end as it got its first bits of food at the next feed.
By then I don’t know if this chick was the one that had been trying to hatch since Thursday…
The chicks got 4 feeds, a mix of Pigeon and Starling.
Shots for today:
Another case of persistence paying off 🙂 Azina came back 1hr31m later having stuffed herself 😉
I know I am starting to sound like a broken record but it’s been another quiet day 😉 Tom ended up doing a total 4hr21m over three shifts (though one was only 8 minutes long) and Azina will have done 19hr37m. She came back for her night shift with a very full crop, she’d put Tom’s shift to good use.
A day of rain and sunshine. At the end of the day Azina had to act as an umbrella as a heavy shower battered the nest box.
But the chicks were left on their own for even longer periods today. I was showing the Peregrines to people this lunchtime and Azina was perched on top of one of the blue cranes. From there she’d have a great view of the chicks in the box. And Tom was by the ledge. So the chicks were not really alone.
They continue to develop nicely. The two oldest ones are now doing a bit more wing flapping (even if they often end up with their face in the gravel) and even did some while holding food. And they’re starting to move around a bit. You can see a shadow of the cheek feathers starting to come up too.
There were six feeds today and some were over thirty minutes. It was only pigeon on the menu.
Watch the small chick steal a big piece of food from one of its siblings’ mouth! No push over that chick! I want that piece and I will have it! 🤣 (and it dropped it in the end…)
And a bit of a funny one 😉
Shots for today:
