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?
They were fed six times today, pigeon every time.
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…
A day of exchanges, food offerings, egg keeping. I saw them mate this morning and witnessed a food pass late afternoon. Azina refused the pigeon offered when on the ledge but accepted it in the air and went to eat it on the roof of Muscal House (that block of flats she’s taken a shine to). I am expecting the third egg sometime in the night: around 4:30 if she keeps to the same schedule as the second egg (60 hours) or before (last year it took 57 hours so it could be as early at 1:30). Time will tell. She is currently in the box, on the eggs, after her dinner, which took about an hour.
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.
I didn’t do an update yesterday as it had been a very quiet day. So was today thankfully 🙂 The pair has really settled into the routine. Tom has ended up doing a bit over four hours each day which is a bit over his average last year.
A clip from today: Tom had barely settled on the eggs when Azina came back and demanded to incubate again. Poor Tom! It’s not like she’d been incubating for over 12 hours. 😉 But his following shift two hours later ended up being nearly three hours long. Happy Tom! 😂
There was an intruder near 3pm, a female I presume as Azina shot out of the box and used the hospital to gain height quickly to chase it over the cemetery. Tom was around and immediately went to incubate. Azina relieved him 10 minutes later. Apart from this it was a quiet day. Azina ended up doing 14hr22m on the trot overnight. Tom had an easy day today, with only 2hr28m.
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.
