Tom and Charlie have managed to do 2 ‘proper’ courtship displays inside the nest box since the last post. The season is properly started!
This was on Friday 4th January
And this was yesterday.
No visit to the nest ledge today but I saw Charlie perched on the usual perch and, this evening, she was on one of her roosting flues, as most days.
Name…
I have been asked a few times already about a name for New Girl. Obviously, that name is good for now but wouldn’t quite fit if she’s around for years.
I have given it some thought over the weekend. Charlie was named Charlie as I wanted a name that could be both male and female and I based it on *Char*ing Cross Hospital. I couldn’t think of a name for her first mate and ended up calling him Mr C, which suited him very well. Tom’s name is based on the initials of The Other Male.
I have had a suggestion of Violet (because she screams a lot) but she doesn’t feel like a Violet to me, she is a BIG girl.
I have a habit when naming other things/pets to use deity names. Because of the breeding failure history in recent years and the hope that New Girl is bringing of success again I have been looking at deities linked to fertility. And so I am thinking of Damara, which is a British Goddess (and the initial D is after C). But there are others that could work such as Damona, Brigid, Turan…
Or we could call her Mrs T…
What do you think? T&D?
Tom preening on the ledge last night while he kept an eye out on the egg. A good thorough job, including talons.
She roosted on the ledge and spent pretty much the whole day there too, she is definitely seeing it as home now I think.
Tom has tried again without success to entice her for a courtship display inside the box. The only time he managed was by taking prey inside with him. Very cunning! But all she did was come in and grab…
He’s managed to mate with her more than once today today as they did it 4 times on the ledge…
One thing I have noticed is that New Girl appears to be a bit messy, Charlie would never have left remains of prey all over the ledge wall… 
Early afternoon on Saturday 19th January Charlie arrived on the ledge and after a short while decided to pancake on the wall of the ledge. I find the following video interesting as it shows her settling, with a better angle than when she does this on top of the nest box as she tends to face the camera there.
She pancaked for a few minutes but got up quite quickly and moved to perch on top of the nest box instead.
There, she decided to pancake again and even have a bit of a snooze.
At 1.48pm, she suddenly got up and started bowing, I thought she was going to have a courtship display with Tom but no. Instead, Tom came and mated with her! This has to be the earliest mating on camera for this pair. I had been wondering a few times a few days before if it was about to happen, from the way Charlie was presenting herself…
It’s day 3 for New Girl at the hospital and she spent the whole night roosting on the ledge.
It looks like she’s set to do the same again tonight. Interestingly, she’s using the exact same spot as Charlie, against the wall.
Tom
Tom has been trying to entice her in the nest box and only succeeded once but that was because he had a bit of food which she snatched off him and then she left 
😉
He brought her a feral Pigeon which she ate for about an hour before putting the rest in the larder on the ledge.
She started to spend some time at the camera end of the ledge and she’s now used to the noise of the camera when it is moved so I have managed some close ups. I have managed to read the first 3 characters of her ring, I am now confident I should be able to get it all and then we’ll know where she comes from…
(On Tuesday, on her first visits to the ledge, she was flying away as soon as I would move the camera, which was one indication that this was neither Tom or Charlie – it’s not taken her long…)
They mated on the ledge for the first time at 3:30pm.
Will there be the patter of big feet after all this year…
She still has blood on the feathers on her right legs and she appears to be injured on her left bottom eyelid which gives her a bit of a funny look. Was that there before or is it a result of the fight…?
Look wise, she looks a lot more like Tom, her chest is white like him not honey like Charlie’s and her cheek patches go a lot higher than Charlie.
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:
