P6T spent the whole night on the wall. And, apart from 3 1/2 hours where he pancaked on the ledge and 15 minutes for a feed, he spent the whole day on the wall too. Minus a few minutes here and there where he went on the floor.
He’s sat, preened, flapped, walked, run, eaten… The only thing he hasn’t done is pancaking, maybe it doesn’t feel safe enough yet.
Nothing more to report. He’s still looking very bright. And to be honest the more he is on the wall the happiest I am as it’s away from possible contamination on the ledge.
Around 4pm Tom brought in a Collared Dove. He quickly took it away since Azina wasn’t interested in grabbing it.
This is the first time I record one as prey here. I have not seen one in Fulham (or Hammersmith) yet. I suspect he may have caught it in Barnes, and even there I don’t know that they are that common.
Today was Chick #3’s four weeks birthday. It tried jumping on the wall five times, without success. I’d say the situation is otherwise the same as yesterday. It is still quite lively, has been going up and down the ledge a few times, has a big appetite but doesn’t pancake or preen much. And when it pancakes it doesn’t look restful. It needs to preen to break the pins and remove the down.
Chick #3
Talking of removing down, there isn’t that much left now on Chick #2’s back. That chick is still looking 100% fine. It pancakes a preens a lot. And it’s very lively. Much livelier than Chick #3 but, first, it’s three days older and, second, I think it’s a male and Chick #3 a female and males tend to be a bit more tightly strung.
Chick #2
Big achievement for Chick #2 today with a successful jump on the wall at its first attempt. It tried where it’s marginally easier (from experience of watching the chicks through the years) but, still, it’s a great achievement.
Chick #3 also attempted to jump on the wall but failed each time. Here are four of her five attempts.
The chicks were only fed three times today, once by Tom and twice by Azina. Again it was Pigeon on the menu all the way.
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.
Two chicks and two eggs
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…
The third chick has just hatched
An hour later Azina gives us another glimpse. The chick has dried up a little.
Glimpse of the third chick a bit fluffier
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.
First views of fluffy third chick during the second feed of the day
It didn’t have to wait too long in the end as it got its first bits of food at the next feed.
The third chick gets its first food
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.
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.
Today was Chick #2′ 3 weeks birthday and to celebrate they all went out! 😉
Chick #2
The big excursion started while Tom was doing a feed and it was Chick #2 who went out first. Chick #1 followed three minutes later and Chick #3 22 minutes later, after Tom had gone. Chick #2 was out for well over an hour and Chick #3 for nearly an hour, but a lot of that time was spent huddled in the ‘hidden’ corner. Chick #1 came back in after half an hour and enjoyed some pancake me time in the box 😉
All three chicks are out
There was a clear difference in aptitude between the three. Chick #1 was standing and running around while flapping. Chick #2 could stand a bit and do a few steps. Chick #3 was mostly bum shuffling but was also trying to stand a bit. I’d say however that there seems to be more difference between 1 and 2 than between 2 and 3 even though they’re much closer in age.
All three chicks are out
The rest of the day was spent mostly sleeping as usual though there were bursts of activity from time to time, with plenty of flapping and playing with food.
So much flapping!
https://youtu.be/jVc-iWK9ELM
There were six feeds and again it was only pigeon on the menu. Tom did two of the feeds, Azina the other four. Funniest moment today was when Azina was doing one of her morning visits to the nest box, rooting around for bits and bobs as she does. She stepped on one the chicks’ tail and the poor chick ended up in total blind panic, hyperventilating!
A clip from yesterday with Tom and Azina preening by the nest ledge.
