27 Mar 23 — Day I-18

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shots for today:

It has been a tough day. It all started last night after I posted the daily update and I checked the cameras. I noticed that Chick #1 had either been crying since the last feed or had trouble breathing. When I checked this morning, it wasn’t any better. We made plans to pick it up tomorrow at ringing if it wasn’t improved and have it checked up at Wildlife Aid.
Throughout the morning it seemed to perk up from time to time and ventured outside a couple of times. At one point it lost its balance and fell on the ledge floor but picked itself up again. It pancaked with Chick #3 in the box for a while. Then around 12:30 it got up, went out of the box, to the hidden corner for a while. At 12:55 it came back to the wall in front of the box, collapsed and drew its last breath.

From the start last night I suspected it may be frounce/trichomoniasis. From a clip I sent Sean confirmed that it is the most likely cause. But, obviously, without checking the bird physically, we cannot be 100% sure. It is not avian flu. It will have come from one of the pigeons they ate. With hindsight, what I called being weird a few days ago, that it pretty much stopped pancaking and was spending its time sleeping standing up, was probably due to the illness. So it’s been going on for a few days. I didn’t say anything yesterday, in part because Chick #2 had stolen the show, but I had noticed that it seemed a bit lethargic. And thinking back on it, I don’t think it had done much flapping.

Now the sad thing is that it has felt like Chick #3 has been a bit off today, and has been sleeping sitting up a bit. But at other times it seems to perk up, and to pancake. Hopefully it is me being paranoid. Chick #3 is also the one that seems to be missing Chick #1 the most. It’s sat by or pancaked on it a few times. The rest of the family have completely ignored it.

The good news is that Chick #2 on the other hand has been very perky. It’s been up and down the ledge a few times, enjoyed a few paddles and did a lot of flapping.

There were just three feeds today, two by Azina, one by Tom. Again only pigeon on the menu.

Ringing tomorrow has been postponed until Monday.

A reduced album tonight:

One last image, with the whole family, contains the dead chick.

The chicks have been in and out of the box a lot today but did all their sleeping inside. Chick #1 has slept most of the day sitting up while the others were pancaked.

There were 5 feeds and all of them were pigeon. Tom did one of them and Azina the others. He would have done an other but the chicks were still full from their previous one.

Two short clips with Chicks #1 and 2 flapping:

There was a feed Live on facebook which you can watch using this link.

Shots for today:

It is getting difficult to distinguish between chicks #1 and #2.

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.

There were six feeds today, of varying lengths, but no varying menu. It was pigeon all the time.

Shots for today: