16 May 23 — Lucky escape!
Dramatic scene at the hospital this morning! If you look very closely the pigeon gets away from Tom and will have learned not to play with fire hopefully!
Something worked up the pair around 1pm today but I couldn’t see what it was… (first five shots)
And a few more shots from today.
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:
Not so many shots today as the chicks spent a lot of their time sleeping on the ledge in a spot hidden on both cameras.
Chick #2 has discovered its wings 🙂

Chick #3 is now quite steady on its feet.

Chick #1 spent time sleeping sitting up.

There were only four feeds, the first one not being before 8am (it’s usually around 6am) but the last one was a double feed lasting nearly one hour. Starling and Pigeon on the menu again today.
Shots for today:
Day 8
Happy 1 week birthday to the middle chick!
The oldest chick is showing pin feathers on its wings 🙂

Another good day for the chicks with plenty of food, plenty of sleep and brooding from Mum and Dad.

Tom paid a brief visit at 2 am! And then a longer one at 5.08 where he had another one of those long chats with Azina. These two are just so sweet!
There have been seven feeds today, at 5.27am, 7.20am (Tom), 10.51am, 1.09pm, 4.30pm, 6.12pm and 7.32pm (short, chicks were still full).
Tom got to feed the chicks this morning.

Shots for today:
Azina laid her fourth egg this evening.
She got up at 6.47 p.m. At 6.49, you can clearly see three eggs. At 6.50 she turns round and starts pushing at 6.52, laying the egg at 6.53. At 6.55 she turns and settles, showing all four eggs in the process as she gathers them together. Easy peasy!
And here are a few shots from today.