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12 May 23 — Day 31

Byadmin

Chick #2 is still full of energy and has been exploring the ledge multiple times today. It is turning into a beautiful dark Peregrine as revealed in the last couple of days with a lot of down falling off. Soon it’ll be just those fluffy pantaloons left!

Chick #3 on the other hand is still causing me some concern. I go back and forth on it as on one hand it is spending a fair bit of time sleeping sitting up like Chick #1 used to do. But on the other one it is still showing big bursts of energy, bouncing and flapping. And a big appetite. I am crossing everything.

Azina finally brought some Parakeet at the end of today. A break from that endless Pigeon diet. She fed it to them in two feeds. The two previous feeds were more Pigeon.

Tom moved the body of Chick #1 by the entrance of the nest box. He was trying to haul it inside, presumably to feed it to the chicks, but it was proving too heavy for him. Later, he started plucking it but gave up very quickly. So it’s now in an awkward spot for the chicks going in and out of the box.

Not many shots again today. I love that first shot of Chick #2 and its reflection in the water!

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  • 14 Apr 23 — Day I-36 / day 3

    2023, breeding, hatching
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    We still have two chicks and two eggs. It is probably too late now for the egg that was hatching yesterday. But it could still happen for the other egg. The problem is that the chicks are all over the eggs making it very difficult to spot signs of hatching. There was a pip on one of the eggs on the feed video below but we can’t say if it was new or not.


    In the meantime we have two healthy chicks. And I’m going to stick my neck out, I am pretty sure we have one boy and one girl (with the boy being the first one to hatch). But time with tell.

    Where's our food?
    Where’s our food?

    They were fed six times today, pigeon every time.

    Azina feeding the chicks
    Azina feeding the chicks


    Tom got to spend a fair bit of time with them. But Azina is still doing the vast majority of the brooding.
    I wish they removed that carcasse…

    Tom's fluffy bottom
    Tom’s fluffy bottom

    Shots for today:

  • 11 May 23 — Day 30

    2023, breeding
    0 Comments

    It has been a tough day. It all started last night after I posted the daily update and I checked the cameras. I noticed that Chick #1 had either been crying since the last feed or had trouble breathing. When I checked this morning, it wasn’t any better. We made plans to pick it up tomorrow at ringing if it wasn’t improved and have it checked up at Wildlife Aid.
    Throughout the morning it seemed to perk up from time to time and ventured outside a couple of times. At one point it lost its balance and fell on the ledge floor but picked itself up again. It pancaked with Chick #3 in the box for a while. Then around 12:30 it got up, went out of the box, to the hidden corner for a while. At 12:55 it came back to the wall in front of the box, collapsed and drew its last breath.

    From the start last night I suspected it may be frounce/trichomoniasis. From a clip I sent Sean confirmed that it is the most likely cause. But, obviously, without checking the bird physically, we cannot be 100% sure. It is not avian flu. It will have come from one of the pigeons they ate. With hindsight, what I called being weird a few days ago, that it pretty much stopped pancaking and was spending its time sleeping standing up, was probably due to the illness. So it’s been going on for a few days. I didn’t say anything yesterday, in part because Chick #2 had stolen the show, but I had noticed that it seemed a bit lethargic. And thinking back on it, I don’t think it had done much flapping.

    Now the sad thing is that it has felt like Chick #3 has been a bit off today, and has been sleeping sitting up a bit. But at other times it seems to perk up, and to pancake. Hopefully it is me being paranoid. Chick #3 is also the one that seems to be missing Chick #1 the most. It’s sat by or pancaked on it a few times. The rest of the family have completely ignored it.

    The good news is that Chick #2 on the other hand has been very perky. It’s been up and down the ledge a few times, enjoyed a few paddles and did a lot of flapping.

    There were just three feeds today, two by Azina, one by Tom. Again only pigeon on the menu.

    Ringing tomorrow has been postponed until Monday.

    A reduced album tonight:

    The whole family
    The whole family

  • 30 Apr 23 — Day 19

    2023, breeding
    0 Comments

    It is getting difficult to distinguish between chicks #1 and #2.

    Azina feeds the chicks
    Azina feeds the chicks

    Chick #2 has started standing up today but not much. Chick #1 has got better.
    Most of the day has been spent sleeping, as usual. No brooding at all today except for 30 seconds. Azina spent some time in the box overnight but didn’t brood them.

    pancakes
    pancakes
    Sleepy chicks


    There were six feeds today, of varying lengths, but no varying menu. It was pigeon all the time.

    Not hungry, Dad!

    Shots for today:

  • 10 Mar 23

    2023, breeding
    0 Comments

    A few shots from today.
    I was a bit off in my estimation for the egg laying time. Azina got up and settled in egg laying position a few times in the night but it’s when Tom came in with food that she finally laid it, 61hr11m after the second one.
    I think they’ve started incubating in earnest now and Azina hasn’t let Tom do much of it.
    I expect the fourth, and presumably last, egg to come Sunday afternoon/early evening.

  • 26 Mar 23 — Days I-15 to I-17

    2023, breeding
    0 Comments

    We have now reached the half way point 🙂
    Here are a few shots from the last three days including some of the quite dramatic skies we had on Friday when it was clear and sunny over the hospital but very dark and raining just North (I even heard some thunder over Kensington at that time). And two shots of the boat races as they pass Hammersmith Bridge as viewed from the Peregrine nest ledge.
    Tom has been doing shorter days of incubation, a mixture again of him not turning up and Azina refusing him. She ended up doing a shift of around 20 hours overnight as she’d started it early afternoon and Tom didn’t relieve her until almost 11 this morning.

  • 11 Mar 23 — time for a quickie?

    2023
    0 Comments

    “Time for a quickie?” I wish I could speak Peregrine… It feels like that’s what Azina told Tom this afternoon as within seconds he was off the eggs and joined her on the corner to mate 😉