We have now reached the half way point 🙂 Here are a few shots from the last three days including some of the quite dramatic skies we had on Friday when it was clear and sunny over the hospital but very dark and raining just North (I even heard some thunder over Kensington at that time). And two shots of the boat races as they pass Hammersmith Bridge as viewed from the Peregrine nest ledge. Tom has been doing shorter days of incubation, a mixture again of him not turning up and Azina refusing him. She ended up doing a shift of around 20 hours overnight as she’d started it early afternoon and Tom didn’t relieve her until almost 11 this morning.
Quiet days. Tom did a lot less incubating yesterday (a mixture of him not turning up and Azina saying no) and Azina ended up doing nearly 16hrs on the trot overnight. He did an average day today (3hr40) over three shifts. He also brought some pigeon but Azina wasn’t interested then. The last shot is of Tom on the lookout on a crane this evening. We could hear Azina calling to him but I don’t think he could. He eventually turned up to relieve her a while later. Before this we saw him very nearly catch a hospital pigeon (there was contact) he’d flushed.
It is getting difficult to distinguish between chicks #1 and #2.
Azina feeds the chicks
Chick #2 has started standing up today but not much. Chick #1 has got better. Most of the day has been spent sleeping, as usual. No brooding at all today except for 30 seconds. Azina spent some time in the box overnight but didn’t brood them.
pancakes
Sleepy chicks
There were six feeds today, of varying lengths, but no varying menu. It was pigeon all the time.
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!
I am posting only one video today. It’s a long one but has a bit of everything: chicks on their own, Tom feeding Azina, Tom feeding the chicks under Azina, Azina feeding the chicks, Azina brooding the chicks… And the little one went on a small adventure and Azina had to bring it back into the fold…
