6 Apr 23 — Day I-28
Just two video clips today.
Exchange on the porch then Azina feels the need to preen a little before incubating.
A bit of time with Tom as he incubates and makes himself comfortable on the eggs.
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:
P6T spent the whole night on the wall. And, apart from 3 1/2 hours where he pancaked on the ledge and 15 minutes for a feed, he spent the whole day on the wall too. Minus a few minutes here and there where he went on the floor.
He’s sat, preened, flapped, walked, run, eaten… The only thing he hasn’t done is pancaking, maybe it doesn’t feel safe enough yet.
Nothing more to report. He’s still looking very bright. And to be honest the more he is on the wall the happiest I am as it’s away from possible contamination on the ledge.
Wildlife Aid have published a story on Chick #3 with photos of what made her ill.
Today’s shots:
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:
Quite different to yesterday. Colder and wetter so Azina has brooded the chicks for most of the day and when she wasn’t then Tom did it. Though he’s struggling a fair bit to fit them all, and so is Azina to be fair 😉

Which means that pretty much the only times they could flap their wings were during feeds and they did that a lot.

There were 6 feeds today, one by Tom. Mostly pigeon on the menu with a bit of Starling.
One thing I noticed today and that’s thanks to the 4 day gap between the chicks. When they hatch their feet are pink. When they fledge they’re pale yellow. On the shots where you can see that the feet of the older ones have started to turn yellow when they’re next those of the younger one. Because it’s a very subtle change I’d never noticed that before, and also because we’ve not had such big gaps before (especially with single chicks! 😉 )

Shots for today:
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.
Happy one week birthday to the youngest chick! And I am pleased to say that it is thriving. And is a bit of a character, definitely holding its own against its bigger siblings.
It has just started to show pin feathers on its wings. And you can clearly see the difference 3 or 4 days make when you look at the older two.

Tom had taken a bit of a step back yesterday. He took two steps forward today 😉 He ended up feeding the chicks twice and doing a fair bit of brooding. Azina still did the majority of it but the chicks were left on their own a bit more again today.

Pigeon and starling was on the menu today. There were six feeds.
Some people are saying that they would usually bring Parakeets. But they wouldn’t, that’s always a bit later in the season (and the Peregrines are nesting earlier than they used to). The Peregrines mostly catch the Parakeets at dawn and dusk when they go from and to their roosts. As the Parakeets are nesting at the moment they’re staying put and the opportunities are fewer for the Peregrines.

To finish, this made me laugh when I saw it first. A game of ‘pass the morsel’ 😉
Shots for today: