09.00, Good Morning to you all with Poppy in residence with one of her chicks just in view.
09.21, Poppy starts looking around, with her fluffy white slippers on.
09.26, Exercise time.
09.28, Poppy shuffles clockwise settles down facing West.
09.34, She quickly sits up, looks around then moves to the edge of the nest box eventually moving back to her chicks gets comfy facing S/E
09.54. Poppy sits up once again this time she leaves, leaving the chicks home alone.
09.59, Henry arrives with food and starts feeding his chicks.
10.00, In comes Poppy with even more food.
10.12, Feeding finished, she settles down facing S/W and starts nibbling on some remains of the prey.
10.14, She departs with what's left over, leaving the chicks home alone, comes back shortly shimmies down facing South.
10.25, Once again she decides to have a change of scenery now facing West.
11.00, Been very quiet for the past 35 mins, with Poppy staying in the same position facing West, now handing over to Peta.
11.00
Falcon “resting on wings” with chicks tucked underneath together with the egg. Being troubled by a pesky fly. The wind is blowing around some feathers in the box presumably from a previous meal.
11.10
She now lies down flat reaching out to rearrange the gravel in the box, possibly looking for a bit to eat. The chicks are just showing underneath. She turns on the nest and a head pokes out from under her. She is still rearranging the gravel reaching out into the corner of the box. The egg is exposed and the chicks are not taking to this disturbance lightly. Having turned 180 degrees she settles down again tucking the egg and chicks back under her tummy.
11.20
More gravel rearranging and then she sits up and preens her back. Chicks have heads tucked under her to keep warm but one has back exposed. She is sitting up and looking about and preening. Toilette finished she settles down again over the chicks although they are growing so fast that she can no longer cover them both completely.
11.30
It is a hard life! What with pesky flies and chicks wriggling under your tummy, how can one get a quick snooze?
11.40
The chick with its back exposed keeps trying to burrow under the falcon to get warm but there is no room and the other chick has no intention of giving some space. She is still brooding the egg and if that was not there, possibly both could be warm.
11.50
More preening especially the wings. The chicks can be seen underneath trying to snooze if only mum would keep still. That pesky fly is back! Still more preening of wings and tummy.
12.00
The falcon stretches her legs and wings and then settles down again. At least the egg can be used as a pillow for the chicks. Much wriggling going on under mum. It seems that none can just get quite comfy for that snooze.
12.10
That’s better. Everyone has settled but that fly is a real nuisance. No - the falcon has started preening again just when everyone seemed happy. It must be that fly that irritated her. She nearly caught it in her beak!
12.20
More leg and wing stretching and she now turns 180 degrees. She sits up and makes no attempt to cover the chicks for a while and then “rests on her wings” over them while watching the fly intently.
12.30
A quiet 10 minutes. The falcon manages to get a bit of a snooze and the chicks were still.
12.40
The falcon sits up and undertakes some more preening on the wing feathers. The chicks can be seen sleeping on the gravel but then wake up and turn round to get back under mum’s tummy. She remains standing and looking vacantly into space.
12.50
The falcon becomes more active and starts moving around. She leaves the chicks for a few seconds returns but then then flies off. Lunchtime? After a short while, the tiercel returns to the chicks but does not have any food. He tries to cover the chicks and ignores the egg. The chicks are too big for him to cover them but as he has his back to the camera, it is difficult to see.
13.00
Tiercel is settled for the moment along with the chicks but where is lunch?
13.00 Tiercel on chicks, facing left. Just started to rain, a long-awaited shower
13.07 Falcon brings in prey. A big already plucked bird. He remains over the chicks.
She starts to feed the chicks and he remains to watch. Once again, she is blocking my view.
13.14 The chicks are less hungry now but all four remain in the box.
13.15 Tiercel flies off. Chicks feed a little more then Falcon flies off with prey.
Tiercel is perched on the fleu de leis Infront of the box
13.16 Chick unattended and seem unfazed
13.17 Falcon returns without her prey and huddles with her chicks facing right
13.27 A fly buzzes by and she watches it accurately
13.37 She is looking about and turning her head in all directions. I can't work out if it's a fly or a bird overhead
14.17 A fly buzzes and she watches it. In her brood pouch, one chick sleeps and the other preens
14.30 She is facing the camera and you can see what a cosy brood pouch she has for her chicks
14.46 One chick 'yawns'
14.55 She is agitated and calling. She gets up and goes to the edge of her box. In comes the tiercel with a small bird which we think may be a greenfinch.
The falcon takes it and tiercel flies off. She plucks the little bird and the chicks feed.
15.00 The falcon is feeding the chicks with prey brought in by tiercel at about 14.56, probably greenfinch.
15.00 She finishes feeding. There appears to be very few remnants so she doesn’t remove carcass from the platform but immediate settles on the chicks, facing the rear of the platform.
15.25 She preens.
15.35 She is alert and watching activity outwith the platform.
15.40 She leaves the platform. One chick moves nearer to the front of the platform and mutes, soiling the camera. The second chick preens its down briefly.
15.49 The falcon returns to the platform with prey which looks very dark in colour, plucks it and feeds the chicks.
15.52 She leaves the platform with the prey.
15.55 She returns and settles on the chicks and egg.
16.00 She spends several minutes trying to posit the egg under her brood patch while covering the chicks but without much success.
16.12. She preens for a few minutes.
16.16 She pecks at gravel on the edge of the platform.
16.19 She settles on the chicks and tries again to push the egg under. Eventually she succeeds but only briefly.
16.31 She tries again and continues for about 15 minutes but the activity of the chicks continually dislodges the egg.
16.59 She is sitting high over here the chicks, mantling them. She preens briefly then picks at remnant of the kill which she tries to feed to an uninterested chick.
The tiercel takes a nap after a feed.
Thank you to todays volunteers- Jan, Peta, Debbie and Graham