15 Apr 23 — Third chick hatches
The third chick hatched around 11.45 a.m. and it was a bit of a rough start… It was still curled up from being in the egg when revealed.
I will post all the photos and write up tomorrow.
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26 Apr 23 — Day 15
Only five feeds today but they’ve all been long at around 30 minutes, except for breakfast, and the chicks were very full at the end of all of them. Only Pigeon on the menu.
Often feeds were the occasion for the chicks to practise their wing flapping, even the youngest one.
Tom with the chicks – look at these great pin feathers on wings and tail
Azina brooded the chicks for most of the morning but left them on their own a bit more this afternoon.
Azina brooding the chicks Watch Azina go after a pigeon from the ledge. She came back empty taloned a minute later but look at that acceleration!
Shots for today:
15 May 23 — Day 34
The chicks spent part of the night on the ledge, until it started raining and they took refuge in the box.
We went to ring the chicks this morning with the thought that we would assess Chick #3’s condition and act accordingly.
Chick #2 weighed in at 750g, which is a good weight for a young male. He was fitted with an orange ring with code P6T.
Chick #3 weighed in at 760g, which is very low for a young female. And she felt thin. There were plaques in her throat, which are signs of frounce, and explained why she had difficulty swallowing food. It was then decided to remove her from the ledge and to take her to Wildlife Aid (I had contacted them previously to check that we could).
I put her in my cat basket (the same I’ve used at FledgeWatch) covered with a blanket and drove her there. They quickly admitted her. I was quite relieved when they replied to my tweet and said they’d started her treatment. She is far from out of the woods yet but she’s been given a chance.Back a the hospital P6T was in shock for a while but finally settled down around 12:30 and pancaked for a few hours. He woke up around 4:15pm, went out and found some food Azina had cached earlier to feed himself. He jumped on the wall at 4:48pm and has been there the whole time since apart from about a minute. It’s past 9pm as I’m typing this and he’s still there. He’s sat, flapped, preened on there. He’s walked it from one end to the other a couple of times. He even had dinner on it when at long last Azina brought him food and he had his first and only feed of the day. He seems very comfortable on it and has even sat on the outside edge.
I’m sure you’ll agree with me that P6T is turning into a stunning dark young Peregrine!
You can donate to Wildlife Aid to help with the cost of taking care of Chick #3.
Today’s shots:
7 Mar 23 — The two eggs revealed
The two eggs finally revealed at 6.05 pm when Tom brought Azina her dinner. Tom then covered them again until her return 14 minutes later.
The two eggs revealed 2 May 23 — Day 21
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.
Chick #1 on its first excursion
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.
Tom and Azina side by side
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.
Tom feeds the chicks 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.
Playing chicks Shots for today:
21 Apr 23 — Day 10
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.
Tom standing waiting for Azina to move (she did after eight minutes) 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.
Azina feeding the chicks Tom spent a fair bit of time perched by the ledge today.
Tom by the ledge. He’s put his tutu on 😉 Shots for today:
