09.00, Morning all, Starting of today's blog with Poppy in residence since 06.43.
09.09, Thanks to John at the Cromer W/P that Henry is sitting on the N /E pinnacle.
09.29, Poppy stirs and starts taking in stones whilst gradually shuffling clockwise eventually settles down facing South.
09.42, Henry comes in to take over from Poppy, giving us a great view of the pip of a different egg than yesterday and the chick moving inside.
10.16, All quiet with Henry fast asleep incubating his three eggs. Facing South.
10.40, Sorry! Henry still fast asleep
10.43, At last he moves, shuffles anti clockwise and settles down facing East.
11.34 Falcon is sitting on the handrail inside the SW turret.
13.01. The falcon is now incubating, shuffles around now facing W. Relaxed with her head down.
13.04. She moves the eggs underneath her. The egg which has pipped is clearly visible along with a crack in the lighter one. The 3rd egg cannot be seen.
13.25. She reaches forward to peck at pebbles.
13.27. Turns to face N the back of the box.
13.30. Shuffles again now facing W.
13.36. The Watchpoint (WP) reports that the tiercel has just come in with prey, think it’s a starling.
13.37. She is moving around again almost full circle to face S. She is shuffling again looking underneath her where we can clearly see the hole in one of the eggs. She appears to be chirping to the eggs.
14.54. She looks underneath her and adjusts her position moving the eggs, settles facing S.
14.03. She checks underneath her again, appears to be looking at the pipped egg which is on her right hand side, 2 eggs visible.
14.08. WP reports the male had just got another prey. He is plucking on the south side.
A feather blows across the front of the camera landing in front of the falcon.
14.14. Chris reports that he has just swung another camera round and feathers are flying everywhere.
14.17. Falcon is catching up on some sleep.
14.22. Falcon is extremely ALERT looking around, turning her head looking skywards following something.
14.24. WP send out an INTRUDER Report.
She is very agitated and calling , she can be heard from the WP. She stands and moves to the front of the box.
She leaves the box giving us a great view of the eggs which have been left home alone.
The hole in the top of the right hand egg can be clearly seen, photo courtesy of Chris.
Unfortunately the webcam goes down at this point, great timing.
14.29 The inset view comes back online and we can see the Falcon has entered the box while the main camera is still offline.
All ok now.
WP. Report. There was a female intruder getting pretty close flying past the east side of the tower but our tiercel saw it off.
14.34. Tiercel is now perched on the NE pinnacle, photo courtesy of Zoe at the WP. Taken through a Viking Optics phone adaptor fixed to the telescope.
14.50. The falcon is now incubating facing the back of the box. She takes a quick glance out over the roof and relaxes facing W.
14.57. She makes another move around, now facing E.
15.00 The falcon is incubating as I start this shift and is shuffling briefly before settling on the eggs.
15.12 She is alert and looking towards the roof.
15.15 Continues to be alert and watchful.
15.22 The tiercel arrives and she leaves as he settles on the eggs.
It’s not possible to see how hatching is progressing.
Throughout my shift the tiercel’s behaviour was noticeably different. He was much more active than normal, with prolonged periods of pecking the gravel and very frequent checking, repositioning and shuffling on the eggs.
15.31 Briefly alert and watchful.
15.41 Shuffling on the eggs then settling. He is holding his wings further away from his body, which will create more space for the chicks as they hatch.
He continues to shuffle and appears to be making contact calls to the chicks.
15.45 Dozes briefly before shuffling on eggs again.
15.51 Dozes before pecking gravel then repositioning eggs and resuming gravel pecking.
15.59 Shuffles and settles on eggs, continues gravel pecking.
16.02 Repositions eggs, settles very briefly.
16.08 Resumes gravel pecking.
16.11 - 13 Repositioning eggs and contact calling.
16.20 Gravel pecking then settling briefly.
16.25 - 33 Gravel pecking becomes increasingly rapid.
16.36 - 54 Checks and repositions eggs several times with further contact calling. Eventually settles facing the rear of the box.
16.57 Settled and appeared to be dozing.
Falcon sitting on the North East Turret
Thanks to todays volunteers- Graham, Jan, Julia and Chris for the webcam pics.
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