hatching

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:

I think it is fair to say that the last egg is not going to hatch now. Looking back at shots from egg-laying time I think this was egg #2 that didn’t hatch. The colour contrast between the brightly coloured freshly laid eggs and now is quite big. All this rolling on gravel does wear them out.

But we have three healthy chicks. And the little one is no push-over!

The Peregrines day started early with Tom bringing food at 4:37 a.m. Azina fed it to the chicks but I am not sure how much they could see each other at first as it looked a bit tentative.

Then at 5:47 Tom came in and had a long discussion with Azina. He really went into her face at times!

Tom fed the chicks this morning and did a very good job of it. Azina has let him be a hands-on Dad a fair bit this time. She left him in charge for nearly an hour in the morning and in the afternoon.

The oldest chick has started to do a little bit of preening.

The chicks got 6 feeds today, at 4:37, 7:04 (by Tom), 11:20, 2:41pm, 4:56pm and 7:17pm. A mix of Starling and Pigeon again.

Shots for today:

The remaining egg got in a position today that allowed me to say that the egg that hatched yesterday was the one that had been trying since Thursday. Between the moment I first saw the pipping and hatching that’s 54 hours.

All are doing well. Tom got to do a little bit of brooding and some feeding but the majority of this has been done by Azina.

The chicks got 7 feeds today! A mix of Starling and Pigeon again.

In the following clip, Tom does his best feeding the chicks with what he’s got 🙂 The chicks were fed an hour before and were not very hungry.

The chicks’ third feed of the day. All the chicks got some food but one of them ended up with the first bulging crop I’ve seen so far!

Shots for today:

I was out for most of the day but took my tablet to do some spot checks (which turned out easier said than done, but it worked which was the main thing). Azina waited until one minute before I was due to leave to finally get up and reveal that there were still two eggs and two chicks.

A check early afternoon gave me a hint that there may be a third chick but I lost signal and it’s not until later in the afternoon that I was finally able to confirm it and put the word out.

If you look closely at the shot above, taken at 11am, it looks like pipping on the egg on the left.

At 11:46, Azina turns and walks on the chick that’s just hatched. It’s still curled up from being in the egg! That is quite a rough start…

An hour later Azina gives us another glimpse. The chick has dried up a little.

Then, two and a half hours after it’s hatched, we get to see a fully fluffy chick at the second feed of the day. It’s the one at the back. It doesn’t get fed then but that is not a problem, freshly hatched Peregrine chicks usually don’t eat for many hours.

It didn’t have to wait too long in the end as it got its first bits of food at the next feed.

By then I don’t know if this chick was the one that had been trying to hatch since Thursday…

The chicks got 4 feeds, a mix of Pigeon and Starling.

Shots for today:

We still have two chicks and two eggs. It is probably too late now for the egg that was hatching yesterday. But it could still happen for the other egg. The problem is that the chicks are all over the eggs making it very difficult to spot signs of hatching. There was a pip on one of the eggs on the feed video below but we can’t say if it was new or not.

In the meantime we have two healthy chicks. And I’m going to stick my neck out, I am pretty sure we have one boy and one girl (with the boy being the first one to hatch). But time with tell.

They were fed six times today, pigeon every time.

Tom got to spend a fair bit of time with them. But Azina is still doing the vast majority of the brooding.
I wish they removed that carcasse…

Shots for today:

A second chick hatched last night, around 10.20 p.m., and was revealed at 5.47 this morning when Tom brought food (Starling) which Azina fed to the two chicks.

A pip and crack were also visible on one of the two remaining eggs but as I am typing this the chick hasn’t hatched yet. (Yesterday’s egg was also pipped by 6 a.m and the chick didn’t hatch until late, the process can take a long time). There was a time I thought it had hatched because Azina took some eggshell from under her and nibbled it. She’d done a magic trick on me as I didn’t see that bit get under her 😉

Azina has mostly been incubating/brooding but she’s also left the chicks for 30 minutes at a time twice. On the first occasion Tom spent some time with them, even tried to feed them, but on the second one they were left entirely on their own. Good thing they had each other to keep themselves warm.

The chicks were fed four times and again a mixture of pigeon and starling.

During one of her absences Azina went hunting and came back with a pigeon that she cached by the nest box. Tom picked it up a bit later and started plucking it. When Azina arrived he legged (or winged it) with the prey and she went in hot pursuit 😉 (the first four shots)

Shots for today:

And a very short clip to finish:

The chick got four feeds today though the last feed was only a couple of minutes long, it was a bit close to the third and the chick was still full. Pigeon and Starling were on the menu.

Only a few minutes at a time but Tom got to spend a bit of time with the chick and the eggs. Very gentle as usual.

A second egg has been pipping all day. It started with a tiny hole and a crack and didn’t seem to develop so I was starting to wonder if it wasn’t a bit of down stuck to the egg but at 6.30 the hole was bigger and the chick visible. It still had a bit to go and may be hatching under Azina now as I am typing this.

There is a mark on a third egg that may be a pip but somehow I think it may just be a mark.

Shots for today: