10 Mar 23 — fun interlude
A bit wet and windy on the ledge today… Oops Tom!
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14 Mar 23 — Day I-5
Azina was eager for the food Tom brought her this evening. She really rushed towards Tom!A few intruders again today (one seemed to be a juvenile but it was from quite a distance) but that didn’t disturb Tom and Azina’s incubation routine much.
One clip where Tom has to do a lot of begging.
And a few shots from today.
23 Apr 23 — Day 12
A day of rain and sunshine. At the end of the day Azina had to act as an umbrella as a heavy shower battered the nest box.
Azina broods the chicks, acting as an umbrella But the chicks were left on their own for even longer periods today. I was showing the Peregrines to people this lunchtime and Azina was perched on top of one of the blue cranes. From there she’d have a great view of the chicks in the box. And Tom was by the ledge. So the chicks were not really alone.
Pancakes They continue to develop nicely. The two oldest ones are now doing a bit more wing flapping (even if they often end up with their face in the gravel) and even did some while holding food. And they’re starting to move around a bit. You can see a shadow of the cheek feathers starting to come up too.
Azina feeds the chicks – One chick practices wing flapping There were six feeds today and some were over thirty minutes. It was only pigeon on the menu.
Tom feeds the chicks Watch the small chick steal a big piece of food from one of its siblings’ mouth! No push over that chick! I want that piece and I will have it! 🤣 (and it dropped it in the end…)
And a bit of a funny one 😉
Shots for today:
15 May 23 — Day 34
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!
You can donate to Wildlife Aid to help with the cost of taking care of Chick #3.
Today’s shots:
26 Apr 23 — Day 15
Only five feeds today but they’ve all been long at around 30 minutes, except for breakfast, and the chicks were very full at the end of all of them. Only Pigeon on the menu.
Often feeds were the occasion for the chicks to practise their wing flapping, even the youngest one.
Tom with the chicks – look at these great pin feathers on wings and tail
Azina brooded the chicks for most of the morning but left them on their own a bit more this afternoon.
Azina brooding the chicks Watch Azina go after a pigeon from the ledge. She came back empty taloned a minute later but look at that acceleration!
Shots for today:
