Another case of persistence paying off 🙂 Azina came back 1hr31m later having stuffed herself 😉
I know I am starting to sound like a broken record but it’s been another quiet day 😉 Tom ended up doing a total 4hr21m over three shifts (though one was only 8 minutes long) and Azina will have done 19hr37m. She came back for her night shift with a very full crop, she’d put Tom’s shift to good use.
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! 😂
And a few shots from yesterday and today.
No big outing today. Chick #2 went out for five minutes on its own and Chick #3 was back in as soon as it was out.
The chicks got to taste Parakeet for the first time this evening and they’d also had Starling on top of the usual Pigeon so a bit more variety on the menu today. Azina must have caught that Parakeet as it looked quite fresh and Tom had been sitting on or by the ledge for over an hour when she arrived with it.
There were only five feeds today but the chicks were very full at the end of each of them.
Chick #2 is getting a bit even more steady on its feet and Chick #3 is making more effort. Chick #1 has reached the pincushion back stage, making it quite easy to recognise it from its siblings today.
When it was sitting next to Chick #3 on the porch at one point the difference 4 days make was quite striking when looking at the cheek patch and around the eye.
Chick #3 cast a pellet on the back of Chick #2 this morning.
Shots for today:
Two things today: first the chicks spent most of the night on their own and second chick #1 stood up and did a few steps for the first time.
The chicks were also left on their own for most of the day though Azina did come and brood them from time to time.
There were seven feeds, usually not very long except for one that lasted 40 minutes. Only pigeon on the menu.
Maybe tomorrow chick #2 will also stand up? Maybe chick #1 will decide to explore a bit more?
Shots for today:
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.
The first chick is two weeks old! How time flies! It, and its siblings, has had a great day of sleep and food 😉 With a little bit of preening and flapping, and some shuffling around.
It was really cold overnight and in the morning so the parents brooded the chicks continuously until lunchtime. Then they left them alone a bit.
I like the alternate positions in the above shot. They do that a lot.
There were seven feeds today. There could have been eight but the chicks were still so stuffed from their previous meal that they didn’t even get up 😉 Starling and pigeon on the menu once again. Tom fed one of the Starling heads to the chicks, so at least that’s one less of them 😂
In brief, it’s all good 🙂
It took Tom a lot of dancing around before Azina accepted his food offering in the clip below.
Tom got to feed a chick under Azina once again today 😉
Shots for today:
Look at the size of crops on some of the shots!
Chick #3 is two weeks old today!
Chick #2 didn’t follow in chick #1’s footsteps and hasn’t stood up today. Chick #1 is a bit more steady on its feet.
There were five feeds today, most of them quite long. Pigeon was on the menu for all of them.
Azina spent the night in the box with the chicks but she wasn’t brooding them. She brooded them a couple of times in the morning but on the whole the chicks were left on their own for most of the day. Except for feeds (which amounted to 2 1/2 hours in total)
To finish, it can happen to the best of them! Azina has an off moment this morning…
Shots for today:
