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.
A few shots from today.
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.
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:
The situation is pretty much unchanged. Chick #2 still looks 100% fine and Chick #3 doesn’t look neither worse nor better.
Chick #2 managed to jump on the wall three times, twice at the nestbox end and once at the opposite end.
Chick #3 has tried too seven times but didn’t succeed.
They didn’t get fed until very late. 6:20pm! Then they had another feed two hours later and ‘have gone to bed’ with full crops. Chick #2 was struggling to swallow the bigger pieces but managed the smaller ones. Strangely enough on day 33 last year Indy wasn’t fed until the afternoon too. But not quite that late.

Around 11 today I saw Tom attacking a Buzzard. This Buzzard wasn’t having it and was twisting talons up to par Tom’s attacks. It was pretty epic. This Buzzard called a few times during the attack, not a sound you hear much in Fulham! Usually Tom manages to get the Buzzards to lose a fair bit of height with his attacks but not this time. He must have judged after a few minutes that the bird had got the message, stopped and returned to the hospital while the Buzzard flew East. It was arriving from the North initially.
Today’s shots:
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:
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:
Happy 7 day birthday to the oldest chick!
Main thing today was that the fourth egg broke over night. Even though I couldn’t see what happened as it did under Azina and she had her back to the camera I can say that this egg was not viable. The chicks were covered in some residue that made them look like they’d been dipped in oil. Not their fluffy selves
Not that it seemed to bother them.

The rest of the day was the usual mix of sleep and feeds. There were 6 feeds today, at 7.23am, 9.12am, 11.19am, 2.35pm, 4.46pm, 6.33pm. Actually close to every two hours except for three hours once in the middle. Pigeon and Starling on the menu again.

Starling heads are starting to accumulate on the gravel again…
Lastly, something happened I’d seen or heard of at other sites but had never seen here: Tom feeding Azina ![]()

Shots for today: