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14 May 23 — Day 33

The situation is pretty much unchanged. Chick #2 still looks 100% fine and Chick #3 doesn’t look neither worse nor better.
Chick #2 managed to jump on the wall three times, twice at the nestbox end and once at the opposite end.

Chick #3 has tried too seven times but didn’t succeed.

They didn’t get fed until very late. 6:20pm! Then they had another feed two hours later and ‘have gone to bed’ with full crops. Chick #2 was struggling to swallow the bigger pieces but managed the smaller ones. Strangely enough on day 33 last year Indy wasn’t fed until the afternoon too. But not quite that late.

Azina feeding the chicks on the ledge
Azina feeding the chicks on the ledge

Around 11 today I saw Tom attacking a Buzzard. This Buzzard wasn’t having it and was twisting talons up to par Tom’s attacks. It was pretty epic. This Buzzard called a few times during the attack, not a sound you hear much in Fulham! Usually Tom manages to get the Buzzards to lose a fair bit of height with his attacks but not this time. He must have judged after a few minutes that the bird had got the message, stopped and returned to the hospital while the Buzzard flew East. It was arriving from the North initially.

Today’s shots:

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  • 11 Mar 23 — time for a quickie?

    “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 😉

  • 23 Mar 23 — A couple of clips

    Someone had something green for breakfast, lunch or dinner 😉
    Azina cast a pellet this afternoon that’s a bit more colourful than the other ones you can see to her right.

    And another picture in picture clip. This time Tom is incubating in the box and Azina pays a visit.

  • 13 Mar 23 — Day I-4

    Azina was eager for the food Tom brought her this evening. She really rushed towards Tom!

    And a few shots from today. I think there were a few intruders today but I only managed to confirm this once when I saw Tom chasing the bird over the hospital. Very aggressively too. Apart from that the pair have settled into incubation routine.

  • 8 Mar 23

    With such a wet and cold day (and night) Tom and Azina have covered the eggs pretty much non stop. Tom came in at 4am for a first shift of nearly 3 1/2 hours! (I guess he wanted to shelter from the rain/snow 😉 )

    Check the first two shots of Tom and Azina side by side at the entrance of the nest box. I don’t often to get to have them so close and cooperating to give such good comparative shots. Tom’s legs, cere and eye rings are orange whereas Azina’s are yellow. His chest is white and lightly speckled, hers looks darker with her big dark spots. His back is slate grey, hers is blacker.

  • 11 May 23 — Day 30

    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
  • 10 Mar 23

    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.

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